Advocate, professor and dentist vying for open Fayette school board seat in District 3

With 3rd District school board member Jason Moore deciding not to run for election, three candidates are vying for the open seat: Education and family advocate Kathleen “Penny” Christian, college professor Danny Anthony Everett and dentist Isaac Sebourn.

District 3 includes parts of north and east Lexington and encompasses several schools from Athens-Chilesburg to Yates elementary schools, Crawford and Edythe J. Hayes middle schools, and Frederick Douglass and Bryan Station high schools.

As of Oct. 23, the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance showed that Christian’s campaign had raised $3,300. Total expenditures were $2,064.40

Everett’s campaign had raised $18,424., and total expenditures were $12,427.

Sebourn’s campaign had raised $9,385. Total expenditures were $5,056.35.

Kathleen “Penny” Christian

“Our district is neither broken nor failing,” said Christian, 58. “However, not acknowledging we are falling short in several areas is a disservice to our students and educators.”

Christian is chair of the National PTA Family Engagement Committee and a member of the Kentucky United We Learn Council. If elected, she said, her first goal would be to rebuild community trust.

“I can honestly tell you that families and community stakeholders do not have much faith in our school board right now, for unfortunate reasons,” said Christian. “There is a lack of accountability when citizens who voted you in feel ignored, misrepresented and dismissed.”

She said she is not a better fit for the seat than her opponents, but one that is “necessary” for the times.

“I am not a better fit. I am a necessary fit as things are now. I believe in challenging anyone in authority when it is necessary, while putting personal opinions and agendas aside to guarantee we always put our babies first. I value this work, have a passion for being a voice for families, and believe in public education,” Christian said.

Christian has decades of experience in advocacy, particularly with PTA groups, and said many barriers to effective partnerships are a result of a lack of shared knowledge.

“I have been an advocate for the children of Fayette County Public Schools for 20-plus years, beginning with advocating for my own children,” she said. “My journey began with PTA, as a volunteer at Glendover Elementary school. I served as PTA/PTSA President at the elementary and middle school level, then became 16th District PTA President in 2018, with my term ending just before the COVID pandemic. PTA afforded me multiple opportunities to serve on FCPS District councils and committees.

“The school board needs to understand that informed guardians are not a hindrance. I want to see initiatives designed to educate families on how the district is run: Who do I go to if my child has a specific issue?” Christian said.

She said behavioral and disciplinary policies in the district are not effective or equitable.

The two high schools in District 3 are Frederick Douglass and Bryan Station, and traditionally, only the former is seen as a “good school,” Christian said. “We must make every effort to value every school in the district so that all our babies feel seen and have equal education opportunities. “

She said the challenges are complicated at the Martin Luther King Jr. Academy for Excellence, an alternative school.

“Community perception has created a narrative that the babies who attend MLK are... not worth saving,” Christian said. “As the school board member for that program, I truly would like to see more partnerships and celebrations for all of the positive that is occurring daily at MLK.”

In the district as a whole, she said, “We need to acknowledge that education looks different based on zip code.”

Christian cited her own experience as a former parent of children in the district.

“It is not the achievement gap, but the opportunity gap. This includes access to advanced and Advanced Placement classes,” she said. “When my girls took AP classes they were always the only African-American children in the room, and they were acutely aware of it.

Christian and her husband have raised four daughters who attended Glendover Elementary, Morton Middle and Lafayette High. She also has two grandchildren.

Danny Anthony Everett

Everett, 64, said his education and experiences have prepared him to lead District 3.

“Our school board needs leadership that focuses on board governance, creation of policy, establishment of procedures, budgeting tied to strategic objectives, and a spending plan that forecasts and takes measures to offset loss and improve gain while federal pandemic dollars from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund are in decline.”

Everett taught and mentored undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students at three institutions for higher education. He leads the $1 million Lilly Endowment Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative Project, and his doctoral research is in educational leadership.

Originally a resident of Washington, D.C., Everett said he has worked with young people in several cities: Flint, Michigan; Dallas; Cleveland; and Lexington.

He said noted his extensive involvement in Fayette County, including on the FCPS Equity Council Committee, Equity Coalition of the Prichard Committee, naming committee for Britton Middle School and the interview committee for the principal of The Hill and YMCA Black Achievers’ Advisory Board.

If elected, he said, in the first 90 days he will work to establish communication with District 3 residents, encourage the board to review existing communication strategies, and, if necessary, improve them.

That includes engaging constituents’ voices like the Prichard Committee, the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, the Kentucky Student Voices Team, and others, Everett said.

“I will focus on establishing policies, streamlining procedures, creating budgets for future school years, and controlling spending, emphasizing early childhood engagement, equitable schools, experienced and effective leadership, and other initiatives,” Everett said. “I will serve my term focused on improving teacher and staff compensation, promoting policy that guides leadership development and growth, and ensuring an environment that recruits and retains the best and brightest people to serve our students.”

Everett said among the challenges for the school district is Amendment 2 — a Nov. 5 ballot measure that would allow lawmakers to use taxpayer money to fund private schools.

“My stance, along with that of an overwhelming number of Lexingtonians I have spoken with, is, ‘No’ to Amendment 2, because it disenfranchises our public school students, teachers, and administrators,” Everett said.

Other challenges, Everett said, are early childhood engagement, a lack of kindergarten readiness for students, academic achievement gaps, inequitable schools and a need for experienced, effective leadership.

“In our majority non-white students district, our leaders must maintain equity as their foremost value,” Everett said.

Everett also noted the importance of bolstering school safety in the district.

“As the district expands, we must support the expansion of our School Safety Office for the District. With only two full-time staff members for over 42,000 students, we are at a great disadvantage. I will support policies to expand the office and its reach into every school with a focus on professionals, mental health and others, who are equipped to address the need,” he said.

Everett is married with four adult children, two grandchildren, and a third on the way..

Isaac Sebourn

Sebourn, 41, said a lack of good leadership is the main reason “our board is struggling to make good decisions and foster a trustful relationship with teachers, staff and the community.”

Sebourn graduated from public high school in Dayton, Ohio, in 2001 and attended Brigham Young University with a major in Biology. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma Dental School in 2012 with a Doctorate in Dental Surgery and then received a Master in Business Administration in 2020 from Oklahoma State University.

Sebourn, a U.S. Army officer for 16 years, said he was in charge of two large medical clinics, served as an adviser for military budgets, led a three-year effort as a military safety officer and was a dental surgeon in charge of dental health and readiness for 4,500 soldiers.

Sebourn joined the Army in 2009 while in dental school. He served in active duty for eight years after graduating.

He’s been a private practice dentist since 2020 while remaining in the U.S. Army Reserves. Sebourn has been married for 16 years and has three children who attend Liberty Elementary School in Lexington. He practices dentistry in Versailles.

Sebourn said the Fayette school board needs “completely open financial books with accountability for every dollar spent.”

“I want to open the books completely so anyone interested can know where every single dollar goes,” Sebourn said. “ I think we need to give teachers more benefits, raises, stipends for supplies, hear their concerns and create a more successful path to have their concerns and suggestions heard.”

Sebourn said he wants to focus on ensuring children are better prepared to start kindergarten. He also wants to emphasize reading proficiency.

“I want to seriously consider a universal pre-K to help preschool-aged children be more prepared for kindergarten, because I want to drastically increase the reading scores,” he said. “I don’t think any school district can consider itself successful if only roughly half of kids can read at the appropriate level.”

Sebourn said he wants to study districts that have stronger reading scores, learn how they teach students, and implement those practices in Fayette County’s curriculum.

Sebourn said he also wants to make a financial literacy course mandatory for high school students, as he sees too many students graduate without those important skills.

“This will teach our children about budgeting, debt, saving and investing, as well as interview and resume-building skills,” Sebourn said.

Sebourn said he also wants to look at Jessamine County’s effort to ban phones in school to see if it was successful, and if so, explore implementing it in Fayette County too.

Sebourn also noted the controversy and lack of clarity from district officials over initial plans for new, gender-neutral bathrooms at Mary Britton Elementary Middle School.

“There was zero community input about the gender-neutral bathrooms in Mary Britton,” he said.

District officials ultimately said that there would be traditional, gender-specific boys and girls bathrooms, as well as “family” and/or gender-neutral bathrooms.

Questions are not being consistently answered, and the board has “a lack of communication with the community they are elected to serve,” Sebourn said.

“There is a complete disconnect between what happens with the board (and) Central Office and what is happening in the schools and classrooms,” Sebourn said.

Sebourn said he’s not running for a school board seat “because I want power or authority or because I have future political aspirations. I’m running because I have three children in public elementary school.”

This story was originally published October 24, 2024 at 5:00 AM.