Orientation Set For New State School Board Members

Orientation for new appointees to the Kentucky Board of Education gets underway today in Frankfort.Earlier this month, Gov. Beshear made five new appointments to the state school board, and two reappointments. All seven will serve for terms expiring in April 2014. The board oversees 174 public school districts, and it’s challenging work, says Lisa Gross of the Education Department.“I think new board members, the one thing that they are most surprised about, is the amount of homework that they have to do. I know that that’s been a common refrain among new board members over the years, and so I expect to hear that again from these current new board members," he said.The first meeting of the revamped board is in August and one of the first items of business will be election of new officers. Joe Brothers of Elizabethtown, who was appointed by former Gov. Ernie Fletcher and served three terms as board chairman, was not re-appointed by Gov. Beshear.