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| Ian Horn and Amanda Glass |
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media
The race is one of three for school board seats that will
end on Election Day, Nov. 3. Early voting and absentee voting are underway.
Horn, 41, is a life-long resident of Midway, a geographic
information systems engineer for the state of Kentucky and a former teacher in
Bourbon County.
Glass, 39, is the mother of three children, co-owner of
Railroad Drug and Old Time Soda Fountain with her husband Ken, and a part-time
manager at Workout Anytime Gym in Versailles. She has lived in Midway for 16
years, and is serving her third term as Parent Teacher Organization president
at Northside Elementary School. She also served as co-chair of the “I Support
Our Schools” committee that advocated a property tax of 5.5 cents per $100 to
build a new Woodford County High School in 2018.
Glass said she is for building a new high school. She says
it doesn’t comply with federal rules for disabled students. “Without a doubt,
Woodford County definitely needs a new high school.”
Horn said he favors the project but has some concerns. “I
have mixed feelings, not because these kids don’t deserve a new school,” he
said. “They did renovations back in the ’90s and a lot of corners were cut;
things were not up to par. I just don’t want that to happen again.”
“Children are under-serviced in that field; we need adequate
training for teachers in this area,” he said. “They obviously aren’t social
workers or counselors, but they need to be able to pick up on the signs.”
Glass said she decided to run because “The northern district
needs a strong, calm voice. Mr. Ambrose Wilson has done a great job of
advocating for the needs of the north side community. I do feel like it needs
to be someone who has a passionate, calm voice to continue to advocate for this
side.”
Glass said her goals include keeping the peace between the
board and superintendent and potentially building a technical education career
path. “I want to keep a good line of communication for all families in area,”
she said, “so they know what resources are available.”
In-person schooling resumed Sept. 28, but Woodford County
families were offered the option to remain virtual. Horn said he had some mixed
feelings about returning to in-person school. “I mainly feel this way because
of my job,” he said. “I’ve seen it from an analytic standpoint, and I’m concern
for the risk, health wise. I just want the kids to be safe.”
Glass said she agreed with the resumption, citing the low
number of positive test results in the county. “The best place for our children
to be is in the classroom, if we can get them there safely,” she said, adding
that she wants to “build upon our virtual program.”
This year concern has been raised about the shortage of
minority teachers in Woodford County. Asked what he would do about it, Horn
said he would be open to discussing hiring bonuses for minority teachers. “We need more teachers of color, but we have
a very white state,” he noted. Kentucky and Woodford County’s populations are
8.4% and 5.4% Black, respectively.
Glass said the district should look at what other districts are paying “The goal is to get and keep those teachers of quality,” she said. “One opportunity to increase diversity and minority hiring is to attend job fairs in areas that have a more ethnically diverse population.”
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