Share and share alike
Share Your Success, an exhibit space that gives districts and schools a chance to share their successful strategies and programs, will set up shop this year at KSBA’s Winter Symposium, Dec. 6-7 at the new Marriott East Hotel in Louisville.
Share Your Success formerly was a fixture at the association’s annual conference. It is being moved from the flurry of activity there to the more intimate setting of the winter training event, which “should give attendees more time to engage district staff and students about the district exhibits,” according to KSBA Board Team Development Director Kerri Schelling. About 20 exhibit spaces will be available. For more information contact Mary Davis at KSBA at 800-372-2962, ext. 1203 or [email protected].
Safety first
Two Kentucky school resource officers and a police department received national recognition this summer at the Annual Safe Schools Advocacy Council Conference held in Las Vegas.
Nicholasville Police officer Billy King, Lawrenceburg Police officer Joe Saunier and the Owensboro Police Department won exemplary service in school safety awards in recognition of their safety initiatives. The two officers were nominated by the Kentucky Association of School Resource Officers, while the police department was nominated by Owensboro Independent Schools.
Re-energized
A school energy manager who served school systems in northern Kentucky has been hired to manage the new Louisville Gas & Electric-Kentucky Utilities Energy Management Program for Schools, which is being administered by KSBA’s School Energy Managers Project.
Jon Nipple, pictured at right, who worked for three years as the energy manager for the Grant, Carroll, Gallatin and Owen county districts and Williamstown Independent will manage the LG&E-KU program, which was set up as part of a utility rate increase settlement in which KSBA interceded on behalf of the state’s school districts. Eighty-three school districts are eligible to benefit from this demand-side management program aimed at promoting energy efficiency.
The project also marks the return of Martha Casher, pictured at left, a former SEMP staffer and Bourbon County and Paris Independent schools teacher, who will be energy services coordinator.
Association advancement
Kerri Schelling, KSBA’s director of Board Team Development, has been elected to the board of directors of the Kentucky Society of Association Executives. Schelling earned her certification as a certified association manager last year.
You have the right…
KSBA has led the way in organizing a friend of the court brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in a high-profile case that could affect school safety.
The case involves a juvenile in Nelson County Schools who was questioned by the principal in the presence of a school resource officer and later charged with a felony. After lower-court proceedings, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled that students should be informed of their legal rights – called Mirandizing – if a law enforcement officer is present during questioning about any misconduct that could lead to criminal charges.
The state attorney general’s office has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal of this ruling. The friend of the court (amicus) filing led by KSBA will support the petition, arguing that school safety could be adversely affected if students are read their rights before school administrators question them.
Teresa Combs, KSBA’s director of legal and administrative training, has overseen the project. Groups that provided funding and will sign the amicus brief are all the state’s regional educational cooperatives, the Kentucky Center for School Safety, the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents and the Kentucky Association of School Administrators. The National School Boards Association also will sign it. The brief itself will be written by two nationally known law firms.
Correction
Last month’s issue identified Rep. Wilson Stone of Scottsville as a Republican. He is a Democrat. We regret the error.