Howard K. Osborne’s future as superintendent of the Boyd County School District could be decided by an as yet-to-be appointed member of the Boyd school board. We find that unbelievable. From our vantage point, Osborne has done an excellent job during his four years at head of the county school district and his contract — which expires at the end of June — should be extended.
Apparently, not all of the four remaining members of the school board agree with our assessment of Osborne. According to board members Randall Stapleton, chairman Bob Green and he are in favor of offering Osborne a new contract, but board members Theresa Jackson and Teresa Cornette are not.
Cornette declined to tell a reporter her position on Osborne’s future in the district, while Jackson says she has yet to make up her mind and wants to wait until the board is back to five members before making a decision.
“Some things could happen to change our minds,” Jackson said, without saying what those things are.
Board member Phillip Pruitt resigned in April because his job with county government barred him from serving on the school board.
The Kentucky commissioner of education will fill the vacancy created by Pruitt’s resignation from a list of three applicants who live within Pruitt’s district. While the state school board currently is in the process of conducting a nationwide search for a new commissioner of education, Elaine Farris is serving as interim commissioner and has the power to fill vacancies on school boards. By law, current school board members and employees of the Boyd County School District have no role in filling the vacancy.
With the Boyd board deadlocked on Osborne continuing as superintendent, then the first vote the new board member casts is a critical one. Never has the filling of a school board vacancy been so important.
Frankly, we wish Jackson and Cornette — both of whom areactive and competent school board members — would publicly express their problems with Osborne. During his four years as superintendent, Boyd County’s academic achievements have risen steadily and quite impressively. The district has met the goals established by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Osborne has steered the district past the controversy over the formation of a now defunct Gay-Straight Alliance at Boyd County High and the resulting court-mandated sensitivity training. Despite all the negative, statewide publicity created by that controversy, the school district in many ways is better from having gone through it. We often learn from adversity
The school district is expected to break ground on a new high school that may cost in excess of $30 million. The immense size of this project alone makes it a bad time to be switching superintendents.
While we are certain many of the most ardent fans of the Boyd County Lions wish they had won more football and basketball games in recent seasons, but you can hardly blame the superintendent for that. Besides, in the long run, success in academics is far more important than success in athletics.
A letter signed by 20 Boyd County teachers that was published on this page Thursday praised Osborne for his visibility. He visits each school weekly, if not more often, and personally greets the students and teachers. He’s an encourager.
Without commenting on the controversy involving his position, Osborne has only said he wants to continue as superintendent.
He should be given that opportunity. Before the next scheduled school board meeting on June 22, we hope a new board member will have been appointed and the board will vote to award Osborne with a new contract. And our hope is that the vote on the new contract is 5-0, instead of 3-2.
Editorials
Stay the course — 06/12/09
Boyd schools have improved under leadership of Osborne
- Editorials
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Charles Chattin
Before it merged with Ashland Community College to form Ashland Community and Technical College as a result of the 1997 Higher Education Reform Act, the Ashland Area Vocational-Technical School compiled an impressive record for teaching job skills to young adults and placing more than 85 percent in jobs for which they were trained.
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Try again
It is time for Kentucky Speaker of the House Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, and Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, to cease playing political games and redraw district lines that are compact and are based far more on population changes during the first decade of this century than on partisan politics.
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'Asset poor'
More than one in four Kentucky households are “asset poor,” meaning that they are living from paycheck to paycheck with little or no financial cushion to fall back on should they suddenly lose their jobs or have another emergency resulting in a temporary loss of or delcine in income.
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Safer mines
The head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) says coal operators throughout the country are improving their operations and, as a result, mines are becoming safer. However, MSHA chief Joe Main said too many coal operators still “don’t get it” and are continuing to cut costs by ignoring safety. That’s why MSHA plans to continue targeting mines with a history of repeated violations for additional inspections.
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Not far enough
For the past three sessions of the Kentucky General Assembly, bills that would raise the minimum dropout age from 16 to 18 have been approved by the Kentucky House of Representatives by wide bipartisan margins only to die in the Senate without even a vote.
Now the Senate Education Committee has unanimously approved a dropout bill hailed as an alternative to the House bill, but it does not go nearly far enough. It is a halfway measure that would have only a limited effect on preventing teenagers from quitting high school before graduation and virtually assuring themselves of lives on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.
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Not their job
The local government committee of the Kentucky House of Representatives has wisely killed a bill — dubbed “Cooper’s Law” — that would have allowed the family of the Lexington toddler with cerebral palsy to have a playhouse on their property despite a deed restriction that apparently prohibits such structures.
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Keeping FADE
Despite an increase in cost to the department, Carter County Sheriff Casey Brammell told the Carter County Fiscal Court that his department will continue to be active in the FIVCO Area Development Drug Enforcement (FADE) Task Force — at least for now.
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Needed changes
The soaring enrollment that Kentucky’s community and technical colleges have experienced in recent years could come to a sudden end — or at least be slowed — as about 5,500 students in the statewide system that includes Ashalnd Community and Technical College are expected to lose their financial aid under new rules being implemented by the federal government.
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Released early
While it is disappointing that 75 of the 952 prisoners granted early release in January have violated the terms of their releases, the good news is that none of the former inmates have been charged with new felonies. That’s an early, but positive, indication that the nonviolent felons released before their sentences were up have been carefully selected and are among those least likely to return to a life of crime.
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Obese children
Almost a decade after former Gov. Ernie Fletcher called childhood obesity an “epidemic” in Kentucky, a majority of Kentucky adults still think that there are too many overweight children in the state and they place the bulk of the blame squarely on the shoulders of their parents.
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Charles Chattin
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