Bullitt County Schools Superintendent Jesse Bacon opened his July 28 report by highlighting district recognition at the KASA leadership institute and then summarized staffing, schedule and policy items ahead of the 2025-26 school year.

Key points
- Staffing and vacancies: Dr. Bacon said the district is in "much better shape" than in prior years for teacher hiring. At the time of the meeting the district listed 11 elementary classroom vacancies, 5 elementary special-education vacancies, six middle-school classroom vacancies (three in science), two middle-school special-education vacancies, seven high-school classroom vacancies and two high-school special-education vacancies. He told the board the district was past the contractual resignation date and did not anticipate large additional exits.
- Transportation: the district reported being one bus driver short for routes but expected to hire before school starts and currently had 12 substitute drivers in the pool.
- Telecommunications device policy: Dr. Bacon described a district policy that prohibits telecommunications devices that "emit an audible signal, vibrate, display a message, or otherwise summons or delivers a communication" (including cell phones, smartwatches and paging devices) from being accessible during school hours. For high schools the change makes devices prohibited at all times except lunch; devices may be carried in a bag, turned off, or locked in a locker. Exceptions exist for students with documented ADA accommodations.

Paid lunch equity exemption
- The Department of School Nutrition Services presented the paid-lunch-equity (PLE) tool and, because the district's school food-service fund (Fund 51) did not have a negative balance as of June 30, 2024, recommended using the PLE exemption and not raising paid student meal prices for the 2025-26 school year. The board approved that recommendation 5-0.

Schedule reminders
- Dr. Bacon listed key dates including kindergarten kickoff, new teacher orientation and the first day of classes on August 12.

Quotation
"You can have those devices in your backpack, but they must be turned off," Dr. Bacon said describing the district's telecommunications-device expectations for students.

Sources and provenance: Superintendent's report and School Nutrition Services presentation at the July 28 meeting.