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HCS proud of students reaching beyond high school in 2023; looking to improve attendance in 2024

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Hardin County Schools Community Relations Director John Wright said 2023 was a great calendar year for the school district, with assessments showing growth among students and students proving themselves as they look beyond their K through 12 education.

“87 HCS students earned an associate’s degree from ELizabethtown Community and Technical College through the HCS Academy at EC3 and the Early College Pathway,” Wright said. “That’s the most students that have ever done that.”

528 students earned work ethic certifications at ECTC, 141 made the college’s President’s List, and 118 made the Dean’s List, along the way earning an average GPA of 3.54 in college courses.

“479 of those passed a career end-of-program assessment or earned an industry certification in one of the 37 career pathways offered by the district, so students are succeeding,” Wright said. “They are getting what they need to succeed here in Hardin County Schools.”

As the district enters 2024, Wright says a major goal is improving attendance, an issue all Kentucky schools have been battling with particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic. The district is under the state average for chronically absent students, but Wright says the district is still aiming to improve.

“Whether that be excused absences or unexcused absences, we really do need to take a focus on making sure that students are in the building and students are ready to learn,” Wright said. “You can’t learn effectively if you are not in the school building.”

Phase One of construction at Central Hardin High School is due to be completed in 2024, after which Phase Two will begin, and the district also plans to begin work on several other projects.

“Namely, the project of building a new West Hardin,” Wright said. “That land has been acquired. Everything is falling into place. Obviously there are some things that the Kentucky Department of Education has to approve, but we are looking at hopefully starting that project sometime in the calendar year of 2024.”

Visit Hardin County Schools on the web for more information and district news.

Guthrie talks about helping workers find education and careers while supporting families

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Kentucky Second District Congressman Brett Guthrie was in Elizabethtown Thursday, and as part of the visit toured Fischbach USA.

Guthrie said coming from a manufacturing background he was excited to see behind the scenes at Fishbach, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, and said his conversations were focused on helping to sustain growth.

“The number one thing that we brought out of here, well two things, is environmental laws don’t over-impact, make sure plastic is important, plastic has a role,” Guthrie said. “You can’t just will away plastic until somebody invents something different, that’s what the marketplace is moving for. But I think the big thing is employment, access to employees. I know that’s on everybody’s mind here, even Ford BlueOval SK as they grow here, and the skill trades.”

Guthrie said earlier in the day he met with officials at Elizabethtown Community and Technical College, and said the federal government can better leverage resources to support programs that help employees pursue education while supporting their families.

“Okay, work part time, and we’ll pay for you to go to school and have the same salary and have some commitment to come back, and how does the federal government help with that?” Guthrie said. “It helps people stay employed, and it helps people to more importantly make a better life for themselves.”

Fischbach USA General Manager Kirk Chadwick said developing opportunities for the manufacturing workforce is a goal all area industry members can get behind.

“We’re a German company, and that culture there is really an apprenticeship culture which really says every manufacturing company is going to hire more apprentices than they need and make sure they get trained, and they won’t hire them all to work in their organization but they’ll go into this larger pool that will then allow all boats to rise, and that’s really a culture we need to develop here in order to make sure that we have the people that we need to do what we need to do,” Chadwick said.

Guthrie said he is working on lowering costs and reducing regulatory burdens in order to help Kentucky businesses sustain job growth.