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Nelson County High highlights new house system, expanded business program and math coaching
Summary
At the Jan. 14 Nelson County Board of Education meeting, Nelson County High School leaders described a new house system to build student belonging, an expanded student-run business and steps in district math coaching that teachers say are raising engagement and assessment results.
Nelson County High School principal Jessica Sikolsky told the Nelson County Board of Education on Jan. 14 that the school has adopted a teacher-led house system, expanded its business program and is implementing new math coaching and shared assessments intended to raise student engagement and achievement.
The school’s house leaders presented the house system, saying it aims to give students “a smaller community feel.” Teacher and house leader Renee Shannon said the system was started because, “we need more unity in the building,” and she reported improved school spirit and cross-group connections since the houses began. Teacher Walt Eaglin described the house names and attributes—SOAR (strength, optimism, ambition, resilience)—and said the names were chosen to reflect Kentuckians who model those qualities.
Business-program teacher Kean Goff described a rebuilt business curriculum that now offers management, entrepreneurship/marketing, and hospitality/travel courses. Goff said the program has an 81 percent pass rate on the state end-of-program assessment for students who have completed the two-course sequence, and students run a campus store that provides internships and hands-on experience. Junior student Jaylen Fulpar told the board his team’s Market Day “profit of $57.50” helped him learn how to run a small business; Clara Keeney, FBLA president and a junior, described industry tours to Churchill Downs and other employers that she said exposed students to behind-the-scenes career opportunities.
On math instruction, district instructional staff described a year of concentrated work to align standards and to use weekly “signals” (short, regular assessments) to drive instruction. Liana Van Dyke, math instructional design lead, said the district repositioned high-school standards into the right courses and that teachers now give weekly checks to “dig into what the students learned this week.” Math teacher Richard (Rich) Arguette described a classroom writing protocol—conclusion, evidence, reason (CER)—that teachers now use to strengthen students’ mathematical explanations across subjects.
School and district leaders said early data show improvement on repeated assessments in topics such as ratios and proportions. Van Dyke described how the district uses an assessment platform to place questions and track growth across repeated measures.
The Nelson County High presentation occupied the board’s school update slot; no formal board action was taken on the programs during the meeting.
