LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Jefferson County Public Schools’ audio enhancement devices help students hear their peers and teachers better, but not every building has the technology. 

What You Need To Know

  • In the past, JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio said all schools would have audio enhancement devices by the end of the 2022-2023 school year

  • The district said the project has had "significant delays"

  • The devices help students and teachers hear each other better

  • The project is now estimated to be completed by the end of this school year

“We just haven’t heard about it, so I’ve been curious as to what the status was because I know that it’s not being offered at my youngest son’s school,” said parent Terra Noland. 

Noland’s youngest son, True, is in fifth grade at Cochrane Elementary School and has some hearing loss in one of his ears. 

“He has auditory processing disorder, so he has difficulty sometimes with hearing and understanding words from his peers and teachers,” Noland said.

JCPS superintendent Dr. Marty Pollio said in 2022 every school in the district would receive the audio enhancement devices by the end of the 2022-2023 school year. 

“We’ve got to make sure every classroom has this, every teacher has this, and every student has it,” Pollio said in 2022.

As of now, only 89 of the district’s 160 buildings have the technology. Some teachers using it said they’re grateful to have it in their classroom.

“First, as a teacher, it saves my voice,” said Newburg Middle School teacher Sarah Meinecke. “I’ve taught for 20 years and before this, I can guarantee you, every August and September, I (lost) my voice. I don’t have that now.” 

Meinecke said she wears it the whole day, and students often use their shared microphone when reading aloud. She said she has noticed a difference in student engagement. 

“What’s nice about this for students is it gives them a voice,” Meinecke said. “Just last week, students were giving a presentation, and kids were shouting, ‘I can’t hear you; use the microphone’. Kids encourage each other to use the microphones.” 

But many students in the district have yet to use the devices, with 71 buildings still lacking the technology. JCPS said the project has had significant delays, with one reason being the difficulties of finding personnel to finish the project. 

“Coming out of [the COVID-19 pandemic] and just onboarding staff to work with our partners to get the implementation done has been a bit challenging,” said Eric Satterly, JCPS chief information officer.

Another challenge the district said it’s facing is it has limited times it can do the installation.

“We work on this at nighttime when [there are] no students in the building, so just finding enough time to complete the work,” Satterly said. “Obviously, we don’t want to take any systems offline that are currently online, so we need to return everything to an operational state each night as we work on it.”

JCPS is now saying it plans to have the audio enhancement devices in all 7,000 rooms by 2025.

“We’re optimistic that will be done by the end of this school year, but we’re hoping that maybe spring break is a possibility,” Satterly said.

Noland said she’s hopeful when the technology is installed, it will make a difference in her son’s education. 

“I think that he would be able to hear more clearly in the classroom. He wouldn’t miss information as much and he would be able to better focus in the classroom,” Noland said.

Most of the remaining schools are elementary, which JCPS officials said are often smaller buildings and are expected to have faster installations. 

In 2022, the devices were estimated to cost $175,000 per building. That number now stands at $220,000 per building.

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