Second write-in files for school board

A moth­er of six chil­dren and for­mer bank man­ag­er is the sec­ond can­di­date to file as a write-in for the District 4 seat on the Clark County Board of Education. Katie Brashear Jones of Winchester filed her papers with the County Clerk’s Office on Aug. 10, just five days after Valerie Frost, a for­mer teacher, was the first to file.

They are vying for the seat cur­rent­ly held by Ben Dorsey, the incum­bent, who was appoint­ed to fill a vacan­cy three years ago.

Dorsey and anoth­er school board mem­ber, Ashley Ritchie-Rowland, who is not up for elec­tion this year, are cur­rent­ly fac­ing theft charges in con­nec­tion with a case involv­ing alleged mis­ap­pro­pri­a­tion of youth soc­cer league funds.

Jones said that the court case was a fac­tor in her deci­sion to become a candidate.

Until a cou­ple of weeks ago, Dorsey was run­ning unop­posed, and Jones decid­ed she felt com­pelled to act.

“I hate it that’s what is being rep­re­sent­ed right now, because we have so much good that is going on in Clark County,” both aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly and in ath­let­ics, she said. “We have some great things to look at, but that’s not where every­body was looking.”

Jones and her hus­band, Cody, have five kids in school this year at every lev­el: ele­men­tary, inter­me­di­ate, mid­dle, and high school, and anoth­er who has grad­u­at­ed. They’re all involved in sports, and one is in the­ater. Those children’s activ­i­ties keep her busy.

“It kind of nat­u­ral­ly fits into what I’m doing any­way, because I’m already out and about. I’m already talk­ing to peo­ple,” she said when asked why she wants to be on the school board.

She said she had not con­sid­ered run­ning for school board before, but she has had peo­ple encour­age her to run for par­ent-teacher orga­ni­za­tion boards and oth­er posi­tions. But she likes the idea of serv­ing on the school board bet­ter than on a PTO because it would allow her to be involved in some­thing that serves all stu­dents, includ­ing all of her kids, instead of con­cen­trat­ing on one school.

“The tim­ing felt right to step back in and make a dif­fer­ence in my com­mu­ni­ty, and espe­cial­ly for my kids now,” she said. “This whole thing of being able to help every­body real­ly appealed to me.”

She is in her sec­ond year as a mem­ber of the boost­ers club for cross coun­try and has served as vice pres­i­dent and treasurer.

Jones said she has lived in Winchester, and in the 4^th District, almost all her life. She grew up on South Bloomfield, lived in Lexington for a short time, and then came back home and bought a house on North Bloomfield.

“I know a lot of peo­ple in all these neigh­bor­hoods extra­or­di­nar­i­ly well,” she said.

Jones said her first job was work­ing for Dr. Ralph Alvarado’s office while in high school and for a cou­ple of years after grad­u­at­ing from George Rogers Clark. Then she went to Chase Bank, where she worked for 12 years and was in management.

While at Chase, she took class­es at Lexington Community College in Winchester and Lexington, but nev­er fin­ished her degree because she was already mak­ing good mon­ey as a man­ag­er. Then after she had her third child, she decid­ed to give up her job and be a full-time mom and home­mak­er so she could be more involved in what her kids were doing.

“I don’t know that there’s any­thing too remark­able about me except for my mom super­pow­er. That’s what I’ve got,” she said.

“Because I’m not a politi­cian, it feels like, ‘What am I doing?’ But the oth­er side of me feels con­fi­dent that all of my inten­tions are in the right place,” she said. “I’ve got a lot of peo­ple who are will­ing to back me.”

Asked what she would like to accom­plish as a school board mem­ber, she said she is just start­ing to look into the issues, but she wants to restore a pos­i­tive image of the school board and “be able to step in and enhance the lives of the students.”

She said she has talked with 2^nd District board mem­ber Dora Hall and looks for­ward to con­ver­sa­tions with Board Chair Carl Kiser of the 1^st District, who is the oth­er mem­ber up for re-elec­tion this year.

Jones said that Winchester Mayor Jo Ellen Reed was her first-grade and third-grade teacher, and “is a great inspi­ra­tion to me.”

“I have tremen­dous respect for her mov­ing from an edu­ca­tor to pub­lic ser­vant,” she said. “Similarly, I would like to be able to make a dif­fer­ence in children’s lives.”

Jones said she wants the pub­lic schools to be “some­thing that every­body in the coun­ty can be proud of,” and that sets up stu­dents, par­ents, and edu­ca­tors to succeed.

Write-in can­di­dates have until Aug. 24 to file for offices in the Nov. 3 gen­er­al elec­tion bal­lot. However, write-in can­di­dates’ names are not on the bal­lot. They must be writ­ten on the ballot.