To your health
Three Kentucky school board members have volunteered to participate in a multistate National School Boards Association coordinated school health project. As part of the program, they will join a cadre of about 50 school board members who will be trained to be leaders in fostering effective school health policies and practices, both in their district and around their state.
The Kentucky members are 20-year Gallatin County board member Becky Burgett, who also represents her region on the KSBA board; Amanda Ferguson, a Fayette County board member for the past five years who has organized a PTA fundraising run on behalf of school wellness programs; and two-year Daviess County board member Merritt Bates-Thomas, a registered dietician who has done training on school nutrition programs.
The NSBA program is aimed at increasing the capacity of board teams to develop and support coordinated school health, thereby improving the health of students. The states NSBA has chosen to participate are Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana and Washington. The four-year initiative is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In training
Kentucky’s school board members racked up nearly 11,500 hours of professional development in 2011, according to a report by KSBA to the Kentucky Board of Education.
KSBA Executive Director Bill Scott and Board Team Development Director Kerri Schelling detailed the in-service training report for state school board members on June 5. KSBA is the agency of record for tracking the statutory annual training hours board members must earn.
The 2011 report showed the state’s 872 board members earned a total of 11,492.5 hours of approved training, or more than 5,000 hours above the minimum total that was required statewide. That was a 10 percent increase over the previous year, while 92 percent of board members exceeded their minimum training hours.
Nine school board members fell short of receiving their mandatory training hours in 2011. They must meet a deadline set by state Education Commissioner Terry Holliday for getting those hours in or face possible removal from their seats by the attorney general’s office. That compares with 11 who received warnings for 2010.
KASS “Perk”ing up
Gallatin County Superintendent Dorothy “Dot” Perkins moved into the presidency of the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents during the organization’s Summer Institute in June. Perkins replaces Pikeville Independent Superintendent Jerry Green and becomes only the second female president in the group’s history. The other was former Fleming County Superintendent Kelley Crain (now Ransdell) in 2008-09.
Perkins, a 30-year educator, has been superintendent of the Gallatin County Schools for 10 years. She is a past chairperson of the Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative and a member of the Local Superintendents Advisory Council for the Kentucky Department of Education.
A graduate of Gallatin County High School and Morehead State University, Perkins’ career includes stints as a teacher, assistant principal, tennis and basketball coach, and districtwide services director. She is a doctoral candidate at Northern Kentucky University.
Other KASS officers for the 2012-13 year include President Elect Jim Flynn of Simpson County Schools and First Vice President Anthony Strong, who heads Pendleton County Schools.