Kentucky State Police arrested Michael York, 40, of Jamestown, two weeks ago Thursday, September 26, and charged him with first degree rape.

York was arrested about 7:50 p.m. in the limits of Russell Springs, according to authorities. He was lodged in Russell County Detention Center.

Trooper Chris Saunders is investigating the alleged crime.

————————————

The Columbia Police Department made an arrest of a Russell County man on burglary charges stemming from a home intrusion on Tutt Street in Adair County.

On Tuesday, September 24, Columbia Police officers and deputy sheriffs responded to an Adair County 911 Dispatch at 612 Tutt Street in Columbia.

The caller, an 87-year-old female, told dispatchers she was in bed and heard someone in her house.

Upon arrival, officers found that there were signs of forced entry into the house but the perpetrator had already fled the scene with an undisclosed amount of money taken from a purse inside the home, according to a press release.

Last Friday, through investigation, Columbia Police Officer Josh Brockman was able to obtain a warrant of arrest for Kristopher Pickett, 22, of Russell Springs, for second degree burglary, theft by unlawful taking and criminal mischief.

The warrant was executed a week ago Sunday, September 29 and Pickett was lodged in Adair County Regional Jail in Columbia.

The investigation is ongoing with more charges pending, according to the Columbia Police Department.

————————————

Russell County Schools Superintendent Michael Ford announced Friday, September 27, that the Russell County School District achieved a proficient status, receiving an 80th percentile ranking among other Kentucky school districts, following the results of testing from this past year.

“It makes me so proud to live and work in a community that supports our hard working students and staff,” Ford said. “It takes the efforts of the whole community to maintain the quality of education that our students deserve, especially in these hard economic times. We know we can count on the support of our hard working families and local businesses even in the most challenging of times. Russell County’s Laker pride has always been evident in support of athletics, band, academic teams and all school events. Russell County School District’s stellar academic achievement record continues to motivate pride in our amazing students, teachers and staff.”

Ford added that even more impressive is the College Career Readiness Results.

“Our high school graduated 83.6 percent of the senior class achieving College and Career Readiness status which is a 19.5 percent gain from 2012. It is also 22.9 percent higher than the state average,” he said. “These results are not only important for our students in preparation for the workforce but are essential for the possibility of new jobs for Russell County. Industry and business consider the academic success of local schools when deciding on locations to expand their businesses. They highly regard Career Readiness as an indicator of the possible workforce and success of their business. The academic and CCR results truly show the standard of excellence of Russell County School District’s leaders, teachers, and staff. We will always have areas to grow, as we can never settle for less than all children reaching academic proficiency and college career readiness. Even with the extremely demanding state standards and highly complex state testing, we have proven once again that Russell County students can compete with students across the state and nation.”

Russell County was one of only 59 school districts in Kentucky achieving a proficient ranking. There were only 25 school districts that achieved a distinguished ranking. The majority of school districts earned a “needs improvement” ranking.

“We are proud of all of our schools in this district. There is less than 1.5 points difference in the overall scores from the lowest scoring school in the district to the top scoring score in the district,” Ford said. “Two thirds of Kentucky schools (781) ranked needs improvement. Four Russell County Schools ranked ‘needs improvement,’ however, their cut scores bordered proficient just missing the state benchmark by as little as .6 to 5.7 points. We are very proud of the two schools that received proficient rankings, Russell County High and Union Chapel Elementary. All of our schools scored remarkable or Russell County School District could not have achieved an overall proficient school status ranking in the top 20th percentile of Kentucky school districts.”