BY ANDREA TORTORA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COVINGTON -- Northern Kentucky's public school districts and Northern Kentucky University's School of Education plan to conduct a $72,000 study of cooperative education alliances among the region's schools. The "Study of Coordination and Enhancement of Northern Kentucky's Public Schools" is part of the Quest initiative. Quest is a 1996 report that proposed ways to unite the economic, government, education and residential aspects of the Northern Kentucky counties of Boone, Campbell and Kenton into a more viable region by 2020.
"We want to try to get data about cooperative programs and the best programs that might be useful in other districts," Southgate Schools Superintendent Bernard Sandfoss said. "This way we can say what our needs are."
The study is mentioned in the Quest report as part of a task force on consolidation and enhancement of the region's educational services. The report calls for improving "the level of education, as well as the method of delivery of education at all levels -- elementary, secondary and vocational sectors . . . (including) the location and adequacy of existing physical facilities."
Educators plan to conduct the study in two phases beginning in August and ending in June 1999. NKU and the Northern Kentucky Cooperative for Educational Services, a group that represents school districts in Boone, Campbell, Gallatin, Grant and Pendleton counties, will hire a project director and research associate. Forward Quest, the group implementing the Quest report, will reimburse the school cooperative and NKU for the cost of the study. The groups plan to hire Gene W. Scholes, former NKU vice president and a nationally recognized education consultant to be director. "We'll help with the research aspects, and we do plan to get community input," said Darrell Garber, chairman of NKU's School of Education.
