Celebrating Partnerships: Honoring the Frankfort Plant Board's Role in Fueling Franklin County Schools' Success
May 02, 2024
Superintendent Mark Kopp
Feel the rush of anticipation as Franklin County Schools gear up for pivotal moments that set the pace for the future. I'm Superintendent Mark Kopp, and in this episode of FCS Unscripted, we're crossing the academic finish line with the same gusto as Derby contenders in their final furlong. Join us as we explore the vital contributions of the Frankfort Plant Board, detailed by our esteemed guests Cathy Lindsey and David Columbia. They shine a light on the invaluable support our schools receive, from scholarships that fuel student ambitions to local productions that broadcast the inspiring stories of our young achievers.
As the school year barrels towards its grand finale, we can't help but celebrate the alliances that bolster our community's spirit. This week's conversation not only underscores the excitement surrounding state assessments and the fast-approaching graduation ceremonies for our dedicated seniors, but also serves as a heartfelt thank-you note to the Frankfort Plant Board for their steadfast partnership. Whether you're a parent, an educator, or a local Frankfort resident, there's inspiration here for everyone. So, subscribe to FCS Unscripted, and let's raise a toast to a week brimming with collaboration and the achievements of #OneTeamFCS.
Feel the rush of anticipation as Franklin County Schools gear up for pivotal moments that set the pace for the future. I'm Superintendent Mark Kopp, and in this episode of FCS Unscripted, we're crossing the academic finish line with the same gusto as Derby contenders in their final furlong. Join us as we explore the vital contributions of the Frankfort Plant Board, detailed by our esteemed guests Cathy Lindsey and David Columbia. They shine a light on the invaluable support our schools receive, from scholarships that fuel student ambitions to local productions that broadcast the inspiring stories of our young achievers.
As the school year barrels towards its grand finale, we can't help but celebrate the alliances that bolster our community's spirit. This week's conversation not only underscores the excitement surrounding state assessments and the fast-approaching graduation ceremonies for our dedicated seniors, but also serves as a heartfelt thank-you note to the Frankfort Plant Board for their steadfast partnership. Whether you're a parent, an educator, or a local Frankfort resident, there's inspiration here for everyone. So, subscribe to FCS Unscripted, and let's raise a toast to a week brimming with collaboration and the achievements of #OneTeamFCS.
Speaker 1:
Welcome to FCS Unscripted. A new podcast for One Team, fcs, where we look at the stories behind everyone in Franklin County schools. Welcome to FCS Unscripted. This is Superintendent Mark Kopp. I'm awfully glad to be with you today. We've got a couple of special guests coming up in just a few minutes, but we are headed down the stretch and everyone's going to see a newspaper article coming out this weekend. Down the stretch they come, just like the Kentucky Derby coming up. Our kiddos are coming down the stretch.
Speaker 1:
State assessment actually begins tomorrow in our district and continues throughout next week. So this is obviously a very important time for our students to get lots of good rest and be ready and prepared to do their very best on the state assessment. We all know that that state assessment is an indication of one tiny moment in time, but we also understand how important that moment of time is so much like the Kentucky Derby coming up, the big race. This is going to be the big race for us. The other part of coming down the stretch making the analogy with the Kentucky Derby is our seniors, who have been going around the court. You know a mile and a quarter track. They can see the finish line ahead and they are coming down the stretch hard and fast and graduation is May 25th in our district, on Saturday, may 25th, at 10 am for Franklin County High School and at 6 pm at Western Hills High School.
Speaker 1:
Those are our two main graduations. Then we also have for our two main high schools. We also have a graduation at the Academy and I believe the date on that is Friday, may 24th at 10 am and then that will be at the Paul Sawyer Library. And then we also have a graduation for William Cofield High School which will take place at Bradford Hall on Friday, may 24th at 1 pm. Very excited to see our students get to walk across the stage, shake my hand, get that diploma and start their post-high school careers, whether that's in the workplace, in the military or going to university, going to college. So very exciting time to be the superintendent of Franklin County Schools. We're real excited for our kids. Also very excited to have two really important, wonderful, awesome guests with us today. We have two people from the Frank awesome guests with us today. We have two people from the Frankfurt plant board with us, exactly Our, our great community partner, the plant board. We have Kathy Lindsay.
Speaker 2:
Hello, hello.
Speaker 1:
Kathy is the PR guru for the plant board. I don't know what your actual title is.
Speaker 2:
I'm the director of marketing and communication.
Speaker 1:
I like PR guru better, but that's okay, that's fine.
Speaker 2:
I like director of awesomeness.
Speaker 1:
And we have David Columbia with us as well.
Speaker 3:
Yes, sir, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:
We are tickled to have both of you here and want to talk again. This is, uh, fcs Unscripted is the stories of everyone in Franklin County schools and the plant board is obviously one of our biggest collaborators. You work with us throughout the course of the year, showing different events sporting events, music, you know, performances, all kinds of good stuff, and we're so thankful to have you as one of our partners. So we want to talk to you and give you an opportunity to kind of talk about what's going on at the plant board.
Speaker 2:
Well, first thing I want to say we talk about graduation. You know, every year we give out scholarships and so we usually give. We give one $2,000 scholarship to each of the three public high schools and I've had the opportunity for the last several years to be a presenter, to present the scholarship at the awards ceremonies or whatever, and it's so fun to be there to see these kids getting this recognition. When we have been watching these kids on Cable 10 for years, do their thing.
Speaker 2:
And so that is one of the great things about working where I work and working with the crew at Cable 10 and seeing all these students. I mean they go through all their high school rites of passage and a lot of times we're there to share it with the community and that's what I love about it. And so, just personally, I want to give congratulations and a great job message to all of the seniors, because you're almost at the end of this phase, but really it's just the beginning for you and some of them just can't wait to get to this point.
Speaker 1:
But then once they actually get that diploma and leave, then they're like oh, wait a minute now. Wait a minute Exactly. David, I know you work in the production side of things at the plant board. Talk to us about what your role entails and what do you do on a daily basis.
Speaker 3:
So I'm the production manager for all of our Cable 10 staff and our advertising staff and on a daily basis we're doing commercials for all of our local businesses in Frankfort. That kind of gets lost in all the public things you see us doing. That kind of gets lost in all the public things you see us doing. That's actually a big chunk of what we do, helping all of our local companies advertise here in town in an affordable way. It's something kind of nice that the plant board and the cable system offers businesses in town, but on a day-to-day basis we run around 10. We have that three days a week live in our studio. It's a big production center. All of us are working on it.
Speaker 2:
Did you say it's Frankfurt's only live morning show it?
Speaker 1:
is Frankfurt's. I believe I've heard that a time or two.
Speaker 3:
And so there's four full-time production staff that work on it every day, and then there's our manager of media services that works on it, and all of our hosts from different parts of our marketing department and we come together to do that. And then all of our sports productions and then the really fun stuff, all the meetings.
Speaker 2:
Yes absolutely Isn't that great All the meetings and then coming up all the graduation. Now that's exciting.
Speaker 1:
The Around 10 show is a great treat for our community. I don't know, people maybe take it for granted sometimes that we have a live morning show three days a week. That's great.
Speaker 2:
And we're coming up on a five-year anniversary, which is ridiculously crazy. I can't believe it's been that long. And we started out at a point where we were just trying to find content and calling people and saying, oh, you want to come be on the show, you want to come do this or talk about this. Now we have people calling us and say I need to come on and talk about this event we're having. I need to come on and talk about this program we're doing, and I love that because they're seeing around 10 more and more here in our community. It's where people find out where a lot of things are going on and where they're going on and how they can get involved or how they need to register for something. And I tell people you know, wherever I go, when I'm in meetings with other, like business organizations or civic clubs, if there's anything that you want our community know, let us know and we'll share. We'll help share the word.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I mean, it's such a great resource for our community. It's available, obviously, on Channel 10, on the Plant Board Cable Plant Board Cable, channel 10.
Speaker 2:
And also on Facebook and our YouTube channel and it is on.
Speaker 1:
Facebook and YouTube. So you know a lot of and that's another question I wanted to ask you all about. You know, it seems like the whole media world is changing quite a bit. You know we're seeing this. You know, back in back in my day, when we had three channels and the rabbit ears, uh, that was our only way to to get information. And now, with with these phones, with the internet, uh, information is at our hands. So how does the plant board, how do you kind of adapt to that new world? What are some things that you've done to embrace that new technology?
Speaker 2:
Well, that's why I have David around. David's really good at all this. I'm going to brag on him for a minute because I said I would. David is somebody who knows about changing technology and he's always, you know, wanting us to get the new thing. This is what we need, this is what we need, this is what we need. We've got to keep up, we've got to do this, and I say great, let's do it. So, david, what kind of stuff are we doing now?
Speaker 3:
Yeah, it's definitely a continuously changing environment and it's tough to keep up with. You talk about Facebook and YouTube and the cable system and we're really reaching multiple demographics with that. The Facebook crowd over the last couple of years has changed. It's different. The YouTube platform has become kind of the main one for us.
Speaker 3:
And the cable system is obviously our backbone and we still have all our cable subscribers that are hitting that and I've told I kind of joke with Kathy every once in a while I'll say you know, I like to have the newest things within our budget, sure, and you know, even recording a podcast like, oh, these are some cool stuff, I want to look at it and touch all the push, all the buttons here, yep. But you know, it's just like we have and it's like to put it in perspective everything in our studio, everything in our mobile production truck, everything we have costs less than one camera set up for an ESPN show.
Speaker 1:
That's wild.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, so to put that in perspective for you.
Speaker 2:
He doesn't know how to do things on a budget.
Speaker 1:
Well, you got to right, you just have to, and much like in the world of education is changing. I think COVID changed everything for the whole world and from an education perspective, we saw how things can be a little bit different. You know, some of our students really thrived in that virtual setting and for some students, sitting in rows with 27 other students every single day isn't the best way for them to learn, and so we've had to adapt, not just in Franklin County schools, but across the country and across the Commonwealth offering virtual schools, e-school and things like that. So either you adapt or die right, and I think that's, you know, important for education. Obviously it's important for you guys. Anything else you want to talk about in terms of the plant board and and all of the wonderful projects you have going on and, by the way, I want to brag on the plant board real quick, just from a personal perspective. We now have the next band internet. Yes, holy cow.
Speaker 2:
It's good.
Speaker 1:
It's amazing.
Speaker 2:
I've had it and I love it. It's a great service. It's Frankfort's fiber service that we have here through the Frankfort Plant Board and if it is available in your area, I highly recommend you check it out.
Speaker 1:
Yes.
Speaker 2:
I'm interested in that.
Speaker 1:
I did. You know, we used to have where the picture would be a little blurry, you know, when you're streaming something. We upgraded to NextBand and we did a speed test before and it would be like 20 or 40, whatever mega, whatever's right. I did a speed test last night it was 930. There you go. Yes, that's awesome. Well then, we're going to shift gears, gears, and we're going to do some fun facts. All right, so these are fun facts for both of you. We'll start with david on the first one, and these are you're not prepared for this. I'm not, and that's okay. What is your favorite breakfast cereal?
Speaker 1:
uh, reese's peanut butter puffs oh man, I was not expecting that. Yeah, peanut butter and milk. I don't know man, I'm weird.
Speaker 2:
I really love chocolate for breakfast. I'm with you. Mine was going to be the peanut butter cat and crunch.
Speaker 1:
Well, it is yours. That's your question. Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:
Peanut butter or cat and crunch.
Speaker 1:
Now doesn't the cat and crunch like, destroy the roof of your mouth.
Speaker 2:
It does, yeah, the roof of your mouth.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:
All right, Kathy, you get the next question. What is your all time favorite movie?
Speaker 2:
Oh gosh, that's hard. Yeah, it is Well just sentimental. My all time favorite movie is parenthood with Steve Martin.
Speaker 1:
Oh, that's a good one yeah.
Speaker 2:
Cause I am all about family and that's a great movie about family and different facets of families.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, all right, david, what about you?
Speaker 3:
I'd say Good Will.
Speaker 1:
Hunting, oh excellent.
Speaker 3:
Dives a little deep.
Speaker 1:
Do you like apples? How about them? Apples? Yeah, great. All right, david, you get the next one. What is your?
Speaker 3:
favorite food. Overall, that's a tough one.
Speaker 1:
See, when I ask the kids this question when they're in here, it's either chicken fingers, mac and cheese or pizza.
Speaker 3:
It's pretty simple it might be one of those, or all of those together. Yeah, I'll have to go mac and cheese.
The last question, Kathy what is your favorite either band or musical performer?
Speaker 2:
Billy Joel.
Speaker 1:
Ooh, I mean you were ready for that.
Speaker 2:
He's my all-time favorite.
Speaker 1:
All right, David.
Speaker 3:
I might go Blink-182. Oh, wow Right in my wheelhouse of middle school and high school. They were pretty big.
Speaker 1:
Well, both of you were wrong. The answer is you too, oh, but anyway.
Speaker 2:
Was this a test?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, hey, it's an education thing right, that's right. Dave and Kathy, we sure appreciate being with us today. You know the plant board's doing great things in our community and we couldn't be happier to be partners with you, so thank you for being with us.
Speaker 2:
Thank you. We love our community partners and we love Franklin County Schools, and thank you for asking us to do this today, Love it, love it.
Speaker 1:
Everyone. Enjoy the Derby this weekend. We will see you at graduation. Well, that wraps it up for this week's episode of FCS Unscripted. Thank you for listening in and I encourage you to subscribe and follow this weekly podcast, where we will share updates, information and interviews with Hashtag Everyone the wonderful students and staff who make up One Team, fcs. Have a great week everybody.
