The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 6

R-JOURNAL KENTUCKY SUNDAY, MAY 12, 1996 zr. mm. tr WUtiMm Beforevou Dperators have become voice Jefferson County schools decide a nursing home is the only answer, think about how secure we can help her feel right at home. We can he with your mother a few hours a week or every hour every day. We can prepare her meals, help with her medication and assist with such personal needs as bathing and dressing.

We'll even prov ide a medical escort to physician appointments. Call one of our Care Managers for a free care assessment. Caretenders may just be the perfect solution. Call 8970705. iJSlii i lir SENIORCARE SOLUTIONS CAREkrWi 'ers FREE "LIVING TRUST" SEMINAR Find Out How To Transfer Your Estate to Your Family Quickly Without Probate Fees BEVERLY BARTLETT Staff Writer i i They are the voices of the Jefferson County Public Schools and have been for years.

Children who started the first grade when Judy Gousha starting working the switchboard would be graduating this year. And for the last seven years, Barbara Anderson has been sitting beside her. The two operators field an awesome 1,400 phone calls on an average day. The pair who were featured on the front cover of the district's telephone directory last year are often the first line of help for the hundreds of questions put to the school system each day. When is spring break next year? Is there school on Oaks Day? Where does my child go to school now that we've moved? That's a big one.

"You can't believe the day after Christmas how many people move," Gousha said. "I couldn't believe it when I started here." But now officials of the Jefferson County Public Schools are exploring how to improve their "customer service." Specifically, they're looking at ways to streamline efforts to answer phone questions. They thought they had an answer about a decade or more ago, when the district began promoting its "fact line," which is supposed to be the most efficient way to get routine questions answered. But despite years of publishing the number (485-FACT) on brochures and listing it in the phone book, many people still call the switchboard instead. Spokeswoman Lauren Roberts said that no one in the district office minds the calls to the switchboard.

But many district administrators including Superintendent Stephen Daeschner are wondering if more needs to be done to provide "one-stop shopping" for parents with routine questions and problems. They've been talking about various solutions from reorganizing staff so that a pool of people would be dedicated almost exclusively to phone work, to using computers to provide the people answering the phone with as much information as possible about such things as bus routes. Board member Dottie Priddy has been lobbying for an more old-fashioned approach: Hire a receptionist at $20,000 a year or less to receive visitors and packages at the front switchboard so Gousha and Anderson can shed that duty. "We need the two telephone girls ATTEND ONE OF THESE FREE SEMINARS 4 Wednesday, May 15th 10:00 a.m. a.m.

Holiday Inn Rivermont 1041 Zorn Avenue 1-71 and Zorn Avenue Saturday, May 18th 10:00 a.m. a.m. Holiday Inn Southeast 3255 Bardstown Road Tuesday, May 14th 10:00 am. a.m. Breckinridge Inn Hotel 2800 Breckinridge Lane Wednesday, May 15th 7:00 p.m.

8:30 p.m. Holiday Inn Southwest 4110 Dixie Highway Tuesday, May 14th 7:00 p.m. 8:30 p.m. Hurstbourne Inn -Hurstbourne Lane 1325 Hurstbourne Parkway Thursday, May 16th 2:00 p.m. 3:30 p.m.

Executive West Hotel 830 Phillips Lane STAFF PHOTO BY MICHAEL HAYMAN Judy Gousha, foreground, and Barbara Anderson field the many calls that come in to the Jefferson County Public Schools district office. The two operators handle an average of 1,400 phone calls a day. Refreshments or Continental Breakfast Served at All Seminars You'll Find Out What Will Happen With a Living Trust. Your estate will transfer quickly to If you're married and your estate You'll avoid a guardianship if you your family upon your death, is worth less than $1.2 million, become incapacitated so your without the expense of probate. there will be no estate taxes to pay.

estate will be run as you see fit. You'll Find Out What Will Happen Without a Living Trust (even if you have a will) visitors to the Van Hoose Education Building; there were about 42,000 in 1995 alone. They also hand out applications and answer the questions of people who walk in off the street. The beginning of the school year is the busiest. Gousha and Anderson usually average about 1,800 calls a day during the early weeks of school.

By contrast, last Tuesday, for example, was a slow day, with only half that many calls. On some days callers are backed up six deep, Gousha said. "Hopefully, they hang on or they call back," Anderson said. to do nothing but answer the phones," Priddy said during a recent discussion of the district's proposed budget. But Daeschner has asked for more time to look at the other possible solutions to see if there is a cheaper or better way to handle the calls.

Currently no one is solely dedicated to answering the phone. The people who work the "fact line," which handles about 150 to 200 calls a day, also have other duties including being in charge of large mailings and distributing school district literature. And Gousha and Anderson sign in If you become incapacitated, or unable to sign documents, a court may assign a guardian to run your estate as he or she sees fit. 1 If you're married and your estate is over net, without proper tax planning your family may owe federal estate taxes of 37-55. Your estate will go through probate, which could take months or even years, and probate fees could be a substantial portion of your estate.

Sponsored by: Gersh Law Offices P.S.C. Local Attorney Wesley Gersh speaks to area residents about living trpsts and proper estate planning. Mr. Gersh has over 16 years experience helping Kentucky and Indiana families properly plan their estates, and his law practice is devoted primarily to estate planning his seminars on living trusts are always free to the public, and are "informative Gersh Law Offices, P.S.C. i liulline Louisville.

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After the 14th baby the family moved to what seemed to be a monstrous, four-bedroom home on Baxter Avenue. The children, growing older, began to move out. After they married, no one was expected to come back home. "I'd get rid of their beds," Hilda said. "They couldn't come back." Michael Linehan died in 1991 the last time all the Linehan children were together.

Hilda is now in Columbia Suburban Hospital being treated for kidney problems. Fourteen of her children live in Louisville; there is a Linehan child on duty at all times, worrying over her. "They've all been good children," Hilda said. "I took care of them when they were younger. Now they're taking care of me.

"Our children never had everything they wanted, but they had everything they needed." "I always thought," answered Pepper, "that we had everything we wanted." or Ursuline Academy, or Flaget High School, or Ahrens Technical Center. Sunday mornings the whole well-scrubbed Linehan family would be in St. Joseph Catholic Church although getting there was a trick. "We had a car by then," said Hilda, "and good neighbors." Bedtime was 9 p.m., although the children often would giggle, fuss and argue until told to shut up and go to sleep. All 18 Linehans finished high school, five graduated from Spencerian College.

In many cases tuition was covered by work programs. "Some of the children were honor students," said Hilda, "and some were ornery students." When she married, her husband was making $14 a week. In his good years, as an office clerk in a trucking firm, he'd bring home $150 a week. Each child had a $1,000 life-insurance policy actually burial insurance paid for by Hilda and Michael. The parents kept order in the family with endless love and tough discipline; all Michael had to do was mention punishment.

1 Continued from Page 1 Interstate 64. Once out of bed, the 1 school-age Linehans had to line up for the single bathroom. "It wasn't too bad," Doris said. "If someone was too slow we'd just bang on the door and tell them to hurry up." There was a huge table in the kitchen, but some of the children still might eat breakfast standing up. Daniel Linehan, the sixth child, did a lot of the cooking, stirring huge pots and pans on an overburdened stove.

Clothing was a continuous series of hand-me-downs; church donations helped. At first Hilda used a scrub- board to wash, then a wringer washing machine. "I didn't knbw what a clothes dryer was," she said. The older children would troop i off to St. Aloysius elementary school, "The new XJ6 represents a major advance over its predecessors in every meaningful way." Motor Trknd OODOO "The cars inspire confidence that every turn of the key, each touch of latch or switch will produce the designed response." Los Anceles Times "The results are arguably the finest cars to come from Browns Lane, Coventry.

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