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Say it ain’t so: Longtime KSBA board policy pro Dara Bass to retire at end of the 2013 after 29 years of assisting local leaders

She’s seen the growth and development of KSBA’s Policy and Procedure Service to where it now aids 173 of Kentucky’s 174 districts.  She’s helped create new services from electronic board meetings to employee handbooks. She’s seen a lot and now she says she’s seen enough. (Just kidding.)

Dara Bass, who joined KSBA in 1984, recently announced her intentions to retire at the end of December 2013.  Bass has been director of the policy service since 1995, after working as a policy consultant for 11 years. Prior to coming to KSBA, Bass spent a decade teaching in the Paducah Independent, Franklin County and Johnson County school systems.

A former president of the American Association of State Policy Services, Bass is a graduate of Murray State University (bachelor’s degree in English and elementary education and master’s degree in education), and earned her Rank I certificate from Georgetown College.  She also received an endorsement for supervisor of elementary and secondary instruction while studying at Eastern Kentucky University.

Bass coordinates a unit staff that has completed or is working on policy manuals for 173 of Kentucky’s 174 school districts and five educational cooperatives, and now supports those entities through ongoing update and maintenance services.  She also oversees policy-related services, including administrative procedures, online manuals, employee handbooks, and the KSBA eMeeting Service.  She is a regular presenter on policy-related issues at training events for KSBA and other organizations.

While she looks forward to retirement , Bass said, "Although it soon will be time for me to step aside for the ‘next generation’ of KSBA leaders in the area of policy services, I will always be grateful for the many fine folks with whom I've had the privilege of working during my time at KSBA. This includes numerous fellow KSBA employees and truly outstanding board of education members, superintendents and central office personnel, as well as several education partners who ‘toiled in the vineyard’ with me.

“I hope in some small way I have made a positive difference in public education of Kentucky public school students,” she said.

And we say, “Yes, you did indeed!”