October 31, 2013 Board Meeting

As always, these are my opinions only, and not the opinions of the Pendleton County School Board or any other individual board members.

Pendleton County Schools Gifted and Talented Teacher Michele Lustenberg shared the many projects of her students in the areas of music, painting, history, and political science.  It was very apparent that she has spent countless hours on many of these projects.  As I listened to her speak that night, I could hear the passion for what she does.  It became very obvious to me why she was selected as a 2014 Kentucky Teacher of the Year Semifinalist by the Kentucky Department of Education and Ashland Oil, Inc.

Legislation was passed on June of 2013 that encourages schools to keep an epinephrine auto-injector in a minimum of two locations.  This epinephrine could be administered in the event that any student had a life-threatening allergic or anaphylactic reaction.  Representative Addia Wuchner sponsored the legislation.  I believe it is sound policy, and I am surprised this hasn’t been implemented in Kentucky before now.  Even though this legislation is not mandating schools to act on it, I think our district should follow it’s advice.  A student can develop a food allergy at any time.  Some of our students have two meals a day at the schools.  We need to be prepared in the event that a student develops that first allergic response during school hours.  We don’t want to wait until an EMT gets to our schools to get that lifesaving medication.  A five to ten minute response time can mean the difference in the survival of that child.  I encourage you to google Amarria Johnson and read about her tragic story.