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Meade County Schools bus driver and superintendent recognized

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Meade County Schools received two special honors during the Kentucky Association of School Administrators Annual Leadership Institute this past weekend.

Meade County bus driver Regina Decker was presented with the 2026 Fred Award, which the KASA says “honors school employees who transform ordinary moments into extraordinary ones through service, compassion, and leadership.” Decker was recognized for creating a “safe, welcoming environment where children feel seen, valued, and cared for.”

Meanwhile, MCS Superintendent Dr. Mark Martin was named the 2027 Superintendent of the Year. He credited the strong school community that has existed in the district for 117 school years.

“You know, anytime you accomplish something of significance, it’s bigger than one person, so this is truly a school district community award, and this is about anyone that’s ever been associated with Meade County Schools and our community,” Martin said.

The KASA says since becoming superintendent in 2020, Martin “has guided his district through one of the most challenging periods in the history of public education by uniting staff, students, and the community around a simple but powerful belief: Students First. Team Always.”

“My family and I randomly found our way to Meade County 13 years ago,” Martin said. “We had not visited, and I’ve just worked with so many competent, caring, and courageous people here and I’m just blessed and grateful, and I’m ready to go on another journey with our district and our team.”

Meade County Schools begins the new school year on Wednesday.

ECTC’S Pate to serve as Maysville Community and Technical College interim chancellor during search

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Maysville Community and Technical College is searching for a new chancellor, and while that search continues the college will be led in the interim by a familiar face.

The Kentucky Community and Technical College System announced Monday that Elizabethtown Community and Technical College Chancellor Dr. Juston Pate will serve as MCTC’s interim chancellor during the search process. Pate will continue in his role at ECTC while serving at MCTC.

Pate said he sees his dual role as an opportunity to make both his current college and a college where he previously served as provost for 10 years better.

“I think, you know, it’s a chance to help a college get through a transition period as they are looking for their next president, and then I think it’s an opportunity for both colleges, Elizabethtown and Maysville, to have a chance to learn from each other and share some experiences,” Pate said.

Pate said the strength of leadership in the KCTCS system gives them the opportunity to make the dual role work. He also said he’ll be actively involved on both campuses, while the leadership, faculty, and staff at ECTC will keep things in motion in E-Town.

“We’ve got a lot of really strong plans in place as we transition to 3.0, and the Family Scholar House, and the construction that we’ve got going on, so largely this is going to be about working those plans and we’ll just continue right on the path we’re on,” Pate said.

The MCTC chancellor search is expected to launch this fall.

Gibbs and Murray selected as co-principals for HCS College View Campus

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Hardin County Schools’s College View Campus will be under new leadership as the school year gets under way.

HCS has announced that Bluegrass Middle School Assistant Principal Neal Gibbs and College View Campus Assistant Principal Darryl Murray will serve as co-principals of the HCS alternative student learning facility. The Hardin County Board of Education approved a new co-principal model for the College View Campus and the two will cooperate to lead the programs there.

According to HCS, Gibbs earned a master’s degree in school administration from Western Kentucky University. Prior to his work as an assistant principal, Gibbs was a classroom teacher at North Middle School, and served 27 years in the United States Army.

Murray received master’s degrees from Western Kentucky and Campbellsville universities. He was named College View’s assistant principal in 2022, prior to which he was a special education teacher and behavior coach at North Hardin High School, with previous jobs at Jefferson County Public Schools and Vine Grove Elementary School.

The first day of classes at Hardin County Schools is Thursday, August 6.

E-Town Council holds first reading on data center text amendments

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The Elizabethtown City Council met for their first meeting of the month Monday.

The first reading was held on a text amendment to the city’s zoning ordinance related to the regulation of data centers in the city, which was recommended for approval by the Elizabethtown Planning Commission at their July 28 meeting.

Elizabethtown Mayor Jeff Gregory said everybody on the city council and everybody in the city’s administration is against hyperscale data centers, but the city asked staff in the Planning and Zoning office to draft the amendments in order to restrict construction of hyperscale facilities while not hurting existing businesses which have accessory use facilities.

“What you all are going to vote on in two weeks basically makes it impossible for us to have a hyperscale data center in the city limits of Elizabethtown, which is what we want to accomplish and what we heard everybody else that spoke the other night want to accomplish,” Gregory said.

Gregory said the city isn’t against passing a moratorium, but said stronger ordinance language that increases regulation and creates guardrails offers better protection, an opinion supported by City Attorney Ken Howard.

“The legal community, generally the view is it’s better to have regulations than a moratorium,” Howard said. “If you’re ready for the regulations, if you know what you want in your community, you’re better off to do that than to enact a moratorium.”

Elizabethtown resident José Torres told the council the fear he and people he has spoken with have is that they are not being heard on the issue, and the decisions being made “are only on one side of the spectrum.”

“If you look at what we’re doing in this community, we’re building, we’re building, we’re building, but we’re not building for people that make under $100,000 a year,” Torres said. “We’re not building for people that are going to have problems now feeding kids in the morning when they used to get free lunch because of HB 500. We’re no longer going to have that money.”

The text amendments will go up for adoption on the ordinance’s second reading.

In other meeting news, the council approved a $25,000 contract with CMW Inc. for the master plan of Trooper Lake, and a $60,000 contract with Lochmueller Group Inc. for engineering services on the Trooper Lake project, which will see new park facilities constructed there including mountain biking trails and a pump track. The council also approved a resolution establishing the South End Elizabethtown Economic Development Program.

The Elizabethtown City Council will next meet August 10.