Kentucky School Advocate

September 2024

A. I have been in education quite a few years, and I enjoyed my experience in all grades as a student in Clark County. I was looking for an opportunity to serve the students of this generation to ensure they get the things they need and desire. The basis of all I’ve done in my life was the education I received in the Clark County Public Schools. I value the commitment to the students, teachers and staff. I have always been in public service, beginning with Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, service in the Navy and Naval Reserves, as a firefighter and fire marshal here in Winchester, teaching at Eastern Kentucky University and in the state labor cabinet. 

Two other areas helped me in my decision to run: my involvement in scouting and at Emmanuel Episcopal Church, where I was a youth leader for 17 years. 

A. I was the product of fairly traumatic home life up until I was 18. I credit the Navy as one of the things that saved my life. I became a very confident and goal-driven person. It really made me grow up. I did six years active duty and 14 years in the Reserves. 

A. When I began, it was a small agency, just me and one other person. Our agency was responsible for environmental education statewide, so we tried to expand our staff, and by the end, we had five staff. One of the biggest changes I brought about was that we applied and were accepted into an AmeriCorps program, so we went from having two people doing education to 22 people teaching across the entire state. I also taught environmental education graduate and undergraduate classes at EKU, and I did outreach to K-12 schools.

A. It is very important to expose teachers to different curriculum that is available on environmental education and to have them incorporate that in their teaching, with the distinction that they are not only incorporating it, but looking at it as an interdisciplinary way to teach and an effective way to teach that is also engaging. Often in working with teachers, we were exposing them to the fact that you don’t have to teach in silos and that by involving other teachers, you also expand your teaching. 

A. As a former teacher and professor and adjunct professor, I would say it helps me to focus on the students and to think about what is in their best interest. Any decision I make, any decision our entire board makes, first considers ‘How does this impact the students and their education?” That is the focus of our board, no matter what the decision is. We are very, very, very student centered. One of the big things is always the budget – can we afford to do this? Is that the best thing we can do, for our students? Our default is ‘Does this impact the students in a positive manner?’ 

Hometown: Clark County 

Family: Wife, Kathy

Favorite subjects: Social studies and science

Hobbies: Scouting and youth activities. Collecting coins and currency. 

Book recommendation: Anything that Carl Hiaasen has written. Because of my work with middle school children, I started reading some of his books that they were reading like “Flushed,” “Holes” and “Hoot.” I thought ‘Dang, these are good books.’ He’s very fun in his approach, and kids read his books because they like that.

Interesting fact: I’ve been above the Arctic Circle, when I was in the Navy, and I have fed a polar bear marshmallows – that was at the Louisville Zoo, when I was a facilitator for an environmental education program. It was fantastic. The marshmallows were on the end of a rather long stick, that I placed through a gate. Those bears’ paws are bigger than your head. I tell people if you ever go to the Arctic Circle, bring marshmallows.