This from Tom Loftus at the Courier-Journal:
New schools chief asks better attitude
FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Education commissioner Jon Draud told the State Board of Education he wants to instill in his department and all Kentuckians a sense of urgency in improving student achievement.
"One of the things that I'm going to try to emphasize over, and over and over, is this idea of a sense of urgency," Draud said...
...During the meeting, board members unanimously ratified the employment contract with Draud. The four-year pact calls for a base annual salary of $220,000. Having started the job Monday, Draud's report to the board was just seven minutes long. He mentioned his overriding theme of urgency and a few initial plans.
"There's a lot of research that reveals that where real reform has occurred in education in this country, the business community has been involved," he said. He said that was true in 1990 when the General Assembly passed KERA.
"I want to get people excited like they were in 1990," Draud said. "I want the business community to be excited about it as well as the educators."
He said he wants to start doing that with regional summits of business leaders -- perhaps organized through local chambers of commerce. The events would be patterned after a local event he was involved with in Northern Kentucky called Champions for Education, he said. "We were able to get 850 people -- different groups, different stakeholders -- to attend a day, a rally, to support education. I'd like to do that regionally on a statewide basis," he said.
He said he met Tuesday with Dave Adkisson, president and CEO of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, to start planning summits and other efforts to enlist business support in improving public education...
...[Board chair Joe] Brothers agreed with Draud's aims.
"We have 2014 in front of us, and if we going to be proficient with our schools at that time, we need a message of urgency," he said. "We need to involve the business community just as he indicated. We think he's right on target."
Board member C.B. Akins Sr. echoed that sentiment. "Jon is no stranger to education in Kentucky, so his remarks were made from a very knowledgeable position," he said. "I like that he's trying to build this collaborative and cooperative spirit so that we can make sure that the product we're graduating from high school is the product that is ready to enter the college level. If we don't close that gap, then we're defeating the process on both ends."
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