Monday, April 21, 2008

Asst. Superintendent Terminated

Jeff Burke, Assistant Superintendent, Finance Officer, for the Fleming County School District Office has been terminated according to information released by the Fleming County Schools district office.

Superintendent Kelley Crain said that Burke, who had been suspended with pay since March 28, had been under investigation by the district office.

“In recent weeks I have been provided information which warrants adverse personnel action against Assistant Superintendent Jeff Burke. On Monday, April 21, 2008, I determined to terminate Mr. Burke’s employment contract. Under state law, this termination decision is not yet final and Mr. Burke has the right to request an administrative hearing before a tribunal,” Kelley said.

The tribunal is three member panel consisting of a current or former school administrator, a current or former school teacher, and a lay person, none of whom resides in Fleming County. The panel is presided over by a hearing officer assigned by the Office of The Attorney General. Burke has the exclusive statutory right to determine whether the hearing is open to the public. No documents or additional information relating to this issue will be made public until the administrative process is concluded, according to Crain.

Barker Wins Kentucky Literary Award for Fiction

Fleming County author Garry Barker’s latest book, “Kentucky Waltz,” won the 2008 Kentucky Literary Award for fiction presented by Western Kentucky University and the Southern Kentucky Book Fest.

The award and $1000 honorarium were presented during the Book Fest April 19 in Bowling Green. Other first place winners were Davis McCombs for “Dismal Rock” for poetry and, for nonfiction, Robert Morgan for “Boone: A Biography.”

Two other Wind Publications authors were finalists in the fiction competition: Normandi Ellis for “Fresh Fleshed Sisters” and Billy C. Clark for “To Find a Birdsong.”

“Kentucky Waltz,” a collection of short fiction, was published by Wind Publications in Nicholasville in late 2007. It is Barker’s 10th published book, and will soon be followed by “Head of the Holler: Volume 1,” a collection of newspaper columns dating back to the late 1980s.

“Kentucky Waltz” can be ordered from online booksellers such as Amazon.com or directly from Wind Publications, www.books@windpub.com.