When the Kentucky Board of Education next meets in August, it will be back at full strength, after Gov. Steve Beshear made what will probably be the final two appointments of his term to this board. And the governor chose to beef up the state board’s district leadership background in filling the two vacancies.
Beshear name Samuel D. Hinkle IV of Shelbyville and Debra L. Cook of Corbin to seats on the state board, replacing another former school board member and a longtime education advocate who left the board this spring.
Cook replaces former KBE member Brigitte Blom Ramsey of Falmouth, an ex-Pendleton County board member who stepped down from the state board in May to join the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence as its associate executive director. A 16-year member of the Corbin Independent school board until 2009, Cook is a retired administrative judge for unemployment claims. Her appointment to fill the unexpired term runs through April 14, 2016.
Hinkle, a four-term member of the Shelby County Board of Education, served through last December. An attorney, he was appointed to a term through April 14, 2018. He replaces Judy H. Gibbons of Lakeside Park in Kenton County, who did not seek reappointment to a third term.
Earlier this month, the governor reappointed KBE Chairman Roger Marcum and board members Jonathan Parrent, Mary Gwen Wheeler, William Twyman, Nawanna Privett and Grayson Boyd to new four-year terms on the 11-member panel.