Beautiful covered bridges, historic churches, remarkable rolling hill scenery and some of the best fishing lakes around are just a few of the reasons people love to live, work and play in Fleming County. Being a rural county situated on the cusp of the Appalachian foothills and the Knobs region of Kentucky, it is mostly agricultural. The residents take great pride in its distinguished school system, as well. Approximately 2280 of Fleming County’s youngest citizens enter the school doors where there exists a long history of quality learning. As far back as the 1800's, Fleming Schools have been led by highly qualified teachers and administrators. The district consists of six schools, four elementary, one middle, and one high school. The PK-6 elementary schools serve their communities, Flemingsburg (the county seat), Ewing, Hillsboro, and Ward. Each of these bus their older students into the middle and high schools in Flemingsburg. The Fleming County Board of Education District Office is also located in Flemingsburg. With little industry in the county, Fleming County Schools and the Kentucky Department of Transportation are the largest employers.
Heartwarming to our schools and the district is that we find the parents and community are so very supportive of the youth. Community partners/businesses, retired teachers, organizations, church groups, and parents volunteer in the schools and work to sponsor extracurricular and co-curricular activities.
Approximately 75% of our students make up the free and reduced lunch population while approximately 18% of our students receive special education services.Fleming County Schools strives to review and create/adapt programs to meet the many needs of the district's diverse learners (i.e., ELL, G/T, 504, Special Education, etc.). Student engagement and quality learning opportunities for all students is a priority in Fleming County Schools. We currently have 14 National Board Certified Teachers, with 18 more in the process of that certification. A district-sponsored initiative provides teachers the opportunity for financial assistance, academic support through a cohort structure, and an NBCT mentor for the pursuit of National Boards. Among our highly qualified teaching staff, 46.1% hold a Master's Degree, and 29.6% hold a Rank I certification. Also, the quality of instruction is further improved by the average teacher tenure being 11.5 years and an average of 15 to 1 student to teacher ratio.
Technology, specifically the Internet, is an essential facet of instruction in Fleming County. Fleming County Schools computers are 100% Internet-connected and meet state minimum standards. The student/internet connected instructional computer ratio is 1.2 to 1 with the state average = 1.3 (data from 2018 school report card). Over the past year, significant updates in the technology infrastructure have taken place district-wide with a large number of student devices added. The entire district wireless infrastructure has been updated, as well, and is now fully saturated. With new leadership leading to increased capacity, the district has recently added 1,580 Chromebooks for student classroom use. It is with great pride that new, energetic and focused leadership continues to help us meet the ever-present challenges of providing needed resources and support to all schools and classrooms throughout the school district.
Meeting the demands of 21st Century standards and curriculum requires supportive and robust leadership, financial stability, and a focused shared vision. Fleming County Schools has that now. Over the past four years, the new leadership team has helped our district recover from some serious financial issues. Hard work and diligence of the new administration has brought the district to a sound financial status which enables us to provide better classroom resources and instructional materials necessary to prepare our students for success. The district is never comfortable with the status quo and continually seeks to become better for students. We regularly provide and encourage collaborative opportunities among teachers and students across the district.
Worth repeating, Fleming County Schools is a distinguished school district and is quickly becoming one of the premier school systems in Kentucky. We are known for our work with the AdvancED Standards for Quality, strategic planning, curriculum, and benchmark assessment, which have led to remarkable growth, driven by teachers, in a very short amount of time.
Fleming County Schools is committed to implementing high academic expectations that will assist our students in becoming globally competitive. Preparing our students for the demanding challenges of college, career, and life means providing innovative, creative and instructional programming that is diverse and focused on student growth. Lastly, we must continue to look for ways to become more flexible as we meet the needs of ALL students. We continue to relentlessly work toward our vision of becoming a District of Distinction.