February 2025
When I sent my last message out about a month ago, I believe I said something like, “Hopefully, we can
get back to a more normal schedule, but I know Mother Nature will have a hand in this.” She certainly
has. As I write this, we have received about 4-6 inches of snow over the past 48 hours with
temperatures in the single digits soon to follow. As one of our principals said, “This has been one of the
most disrupted school years ever.” These are certainly adverse conditions for learning, but I had the
opportunity to participate in a learning walk at Corbin High School last week that really motivated me to
share. I visited several classrooms with a group of administrators and was very impressed with the
quality of instruction and the level of student participation I observed. Kids were discussing learning
standards among themselves while the teacher facilitated multiple conversations between small groups
at the same time. Students felt empowered and were comfortable defending their position on many
different ideas. It reminded me that people who work in an administrative capacity (especially me),
need to make visiting classrooms a priority. The students are truly amazing, and these visits are uplifting,
to say the least. Some of these kids are a few short weeks from being in the “real world,” and they are
preparing very well for whatever future they choose.
Construction crews broke ground on the Auxiliary Gym recently and have been making progress despite
the difficult conditions they encounter daily. Our staff discussed the tremendous effect the new gym will
have on the student body at Corbin. Based on the use of our current gym, the AG will be fully utilized
from day one. It occurred to me that between volleyball, boys/girls basketball, dance, cheer, boys/girls
wrestling, ROTC, and various other groups, there will literally be hundreds of students who will benefit
from access to this new facility. It will also be used as a classroom during school hours.
The staff at CHS pride themselves on the belief that every student can find some activity outside of the
academic realm that will “connect” them to the school. I, and most others, believe this makes for
happier, more successful students who perform better academically when they have a niche at school.
So, thanking our teachers and staff for all they do is always appropriate; but let’s also remember to
thank our coaches and activity sponsors for making school more fun and interesting for our kids. These
folks play a very important role as well. The cool thing is, many of these folks are filling multiple roles at
once as teacher/coach/sponsor all rolled into one.
I believe a fact that needs to be reiterated about all new construction in our district over the past few
years is that the funding used for all of these projects comes from the state in the form of “restricted”
funds. These funds are earmarked only for use on construction projects and are not available for
everyday costs associated with operating the school system. Employee salaries, utility costs, materials,
textbooks, technology, etc. cannot be paid for with these “restricted” funds. So, we either utilize these
funds to improve our facilities or leave them unused in the bank. The consensus of our district is that we
believe the “restricted” funds should be used as we accrue them. In turn, taxpayers who helped
generate these funds get to see their resources put to immediate, productive use for the benefit of the
students and our community. I know this for sure: our students are the beneficiaries of our community’s
long-standing generosity toward our local school system.
We will continue to look forward to Spring and better weather, but for the time being, we will do our
best to keep things as normal as possible.
Dave Cox, Superintendent
