|
|
» 1A » Sports » City | Region » Health | Family » Communities » Free Time » Weekender » Faith | Values » Inside | Out » A la carte » Arts + Life |
HeraldLeaderPhoto.com
 | |
 | |
| »
View slideshows by Herald-Leader photographers including The Week in Pictures Sports Staff Portfolios and more! | |
|
 |
Gov. Steve Beshear tapped four Democrats and one Republican to serve on the state Board of Education, his office announced Thursday.
Beshear's selections on the board include former Republican gubernatorial candidate Billy Harper and the father of former University of Kentucky basketball player Ravi Moss.
Harper, president and chief executive officer of Harper Industries Inc. in Paducah, finished third in the 2007 GOP gubernatorial primary. A longtime education advocate, Harper served earlier this decade on a key educational advisory group that made two dozen recommendations for the direction of the Kentucky public school systems.
He will serve as an at-large member of the board for a term that expires April 14, 2012. He replaces Republican David Rhodes.
The appointments to the 12-member board come after a year of turmoil.
The board ignored the wishes of Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear by hiring former Republican state Rep. Jon Draud as education commissioner less than a month before Beshear took office Dec. 11.
That appointment came after the board hired controversial Illinois educator Barbara Erwin for the job last May. She resigned shortly before she would have started work in July, amid controversy over errors on her rŽsumŽ.
Others Beshear named to the education board are:
• Democrat Austin W. Moss of Hopkinsville. Moss will serve until April 14, 2010 and represents the 1st Supreme Court District. He replaces former board chairman, Republican Keith Travis, who resigned last month. Moss is vice president of human resources at Jennie Stuart Medical Center and the father of former UK walk-on Ravi Moss.
• Democrat Stephen B. Neal of Louisville. Neal, the executive director of the Jefferson County Teachers Association, will serve through April 14, 2012, as an at-large member. He replaces Democrat Bonnie Lash Freeman, whose term expired.
• Democrat Dorothy "Dorie" Z. Combs of Richmond. Combs, an education professor at Eastern Kentucky University, will serve through April 14, 2012. She previously served on the board from June 2002 to April 2006 and will serve as an at-large member replacing Republican Janna Vice, whose term expired.
• Democrat Brigitte B. Ramsey of Falmouth. Ramsey, a public-policy analyst for the United Way of Greater Cincinnati, will serve as an at-large member through April 14, 2012. She replaces Republican David Webb, whose term expired.
The board is charged with setting governing regulations for the 174 public school districts across the state.
