Kentucky School Advocate
February 2023

McCracken County superintendent to retire
McCracken County Schools Superintendent Steve Carter has announced he plans to retire on June 30.In a statement, McCracken County school board member Tiffany Watson described Carter as a servant leader.

Carter, who has been superintendent since 2019, said he made the announcement now so the school board has enough time to thoroughly search for his replacement. The board voted to use the Kentucky School Board Association’s Superintendent Search Service.

The service will help advertise for the position and provide access to a network of aspiring superintendents.

Carter has 27 years of experience in education, including 21 years as a school administrator. Carter was previously the assistant superintendent of Union County Schools.

Perry County hires new superintendent 
Kent Campbell was named Perry County Schools next superintendent.Campbell has spent nearly 20 years in education. He attended Alice Lloyd College and, once he graduated, he became a social studies teacher.

He has served as principal the past six years at two Perry County elementary schools.

“I’m a big data guy, so I’m going to go in there and analyze the data, I’m going to look at it pick it apart,” Campbell told WYMT-TV. “You know, we’re going to come up with game plans to address the areas of concern that we have, and offer the support that we need to make our students most successful as possible.”

KBE seeking applications for student, teacher members
Applications are open for nonvoting student and teacher members of the Kentucky Board of Education (KBE).

To be considered, teacher applicants must be employed on a full-time basis by a Kentucky public school district, in a position for which Education Professional Standards Board certification is required, not be employed in an administrative role and reside in Kentucky’s 1st Congressional District.

For the student member position, applicants must be enrolled in a Kentucky public high school, be a junior in good standing on July 1 – which means a sophomore at the time of application and reside in Kentucky’s 5th Congressional District.

The KBE has 15 members. The governor appoints 11 voting members: seven representing the Supreme Court districts and four representing the state at large. The additional members – the president of the Council on Postsecondary Education, the secretary of the Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet, a high school student and an active elementary or secondary school teacher – serve as nonvoting members.

Applications are due March 6. To apply, complete the appropriate form on the Kentucky Department of Education website or email [email protected].

JCPS challenges open meetings ruling on masks
The Jefferson County Board of Education has challenged Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron's recent decision claiming the district violated the state’s Open Meetings Act (OMA).

The board filed a lawsuit in Jefferson Circuit Court seeking to reverse Cameron’s Dec. 5 decision which said the school board violated the Kentucky OMA when it barred Kurt Wallace from attending the board’s Aug. 2 meeting.

Wallace refused to wear a mask at the meeting and did not apply for a waiver. Cameron found that Wallace was illegally excluded from the meeting because a mask-or-test requirement “is intended for maintaining public health, but it has nothing to do with maintaining order,” according to the decision.

The school board argues that having no control to limit the spread of communicable diseases at its meetings would curtail public participation and put staff and teachers at unreasonable risk. It also questions whether Cameron, a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor, should have recused himself from the case after publicly criticizing Jefferson County’s mask mandate.

As evidence the board included a campaign email in which Cameron described the mask policy as “absurd”, “against common sense” and “a blight on our personal freedoms.”

The board also argues masks were required to enter the JCPS building, not the meeting itself, as part of its Health Guidance Plan enacted in July 2022.

Under Kentucky law, attorney general decisions regarding open records and open meetings issues are legally binding unless one of the parties takes the dispute to court.