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Focusing on WKCTC board obscures innovative programming
WKCTC President Barbara Veazey - innovative education on a budget.
On July 2nd in a laundry list of appointments, Governor Beshear appointed seven members to the Board of Directors of West Kentucky Community & Technical College in Paducah. I missed it – being all about the 4th of July holiday and my grandchildren coming to visit. Now, redfaced with the oversight, I dug the press release from late afternoon on the day before a holiday.
“Gov. Beshear has appointed the following as members of the West Kentucky Community and Technical College Board of Directors to serve for terms expiring April 3, 2014.
Those appointed are:
  • Deborah A. Edmonds, of Paducah, is a self-employed insurance salesperson.  The appointment replaces Mary Lou Yeatts, whose term has expired. 
  • Steven S. Grinnell, of Paducah, is a healthcare executive with Mercy Health Partners, Lourdes Hospital.  The appointment replaces Julie A. Thomas, whose term has expired. 
  • Bonnie Lee Jones, of Grand Rivers, is retired.  The appointment replaces Nancy Susan Nelson, shoe term has expired.
  • Larry G. Kelley, of Wickliffe, is a self-employed real estate agent.   The appointment replaces Donald R. Mitchell, whose term has expired. 
  • Shirley A. Menendez, of Paducah, is an educator with Livingston County schools.  The appointment replaces B.A. Hamilton, whose term has expired. 
  • Jennifer Smith, of Mayfield, is a school administrator for Graves County schools.  The appointment replaces Robert R. Emerson, whose term has expired. 
  • The Gov. reappointed Bruce P. Brockenborough to the board to serve for a term expiring April 3, 2014. 
  • Bruce P. Brockenborough, of Paducah, is the director of pupil personnel for Graves County schools.”  
            It seems a brouhaha has erupted six weeks later on an online site in Louisville over the appointment of Larry Kelley of Wickliffe. Kelley is a college friend of the Governor’s. Locally, the reappointment of Bruce Brockenborough, who ran against Rep. Frank Rasche in 2006 has stirred consternation. Kelley has a criminal record and Brockenborough was accused of claiming college credit he didn’t have.  That’s the story of the appointments being circulated online.
            That’s not the story of West Kentucky Community & Technical College from our viewpoint.
            We interviewed President Barbara Veazey of WKCTC a few days before the ice storm last January. Unfortunately, in the disaster of losing our electricity, the tape we recorded was lost and the story was never posted. 
            That’s a shame. Because the big story of West Kentucky Community & Technical College shouldn’t be about board members, but about the leadership of a school far from the Capital City and their ongoing effort to provide quality, innovative education with shrinking state dollars.
            For example, this year, fifty high school students from Marshall and McCracken Counties began classes in Commonwealth Middle College, working in a college atmosphere on their core curriculum and getting a head start on college studies.
            The nursing program at WKCTC set up a practice clinic in low income housing in Paducah a few years ago. We were intrigued by that effort. Imagine. A program that provides health care for those who can least afford close to where they live and gives student nursing an up close and personal look at the profession they are joining. WKCTC did it before “health care” became the phrase du jour.
            The school offers programs ranging from air conditioning technology, collision repair, homeland security, nursing, and cosmetology through an alphabet soup of job attaining programs all the way to “W” for welding.  
            One can get a degree in Mechanitronics, described on the website as “a rapidly growing, combination of branches of instruction, dealing with the design of complex systems whose function relies on the integration of mechanical and electrical/electronic components coordinated by a control architecture”.  I have no idea what it means, but two WKCTC students the first in the nation to excel at it.
            Tonight, my husband is going to a West Kentucky Chefs & Cooks Association meeting held on the campus of WKCTC to learn more about organic farming.
            The academic leadership at WKCTC is made up of ten women and two men. Dr. Veazey described last winter the efforts her faculty makes to deliver high quality education for students who plan to go on into the university system and those who want to join (or rejoin) the workforce as soon as they finish their community college courses.              
            On Monday, August 24th from 4-6 p.m., an Open House will be held in Kevil, Ballard County to celebrate the beginning of a new Workforce Solutions Program. The school leased 3,735 square feet of space in the Ballard County Industrial Park Building at 101 Library Drive in Kevil. Two evening welding classes will be offered at the new location. An English 101 class will be offered in the center beginning September 14. In addition, the center will be able to provide local businesses and industries customized training.”
            WKCTC started classes Monday, August 17th. It's a new year with new programs, new ideas new challenges and old and new board members.
            Political appointees with dubious pasts?
            Yawn.  
            Jobs and job training, exciting programs and eager students?
            Now, that’s a story.

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