State Spotlight - Kentucky
The 2019-2020 school year started off with lots of knowledge, excitement, gifts, and prizes. At our Summer Conference in July 2019, we offered numerous workshops and sessions for Business Teachers, our “Let the Good Times Roll” Social, which allows teachers to come together for an evening of fun, fellowship and prizes; and our wonderful brunch where we announced awards, held our business meeting, elected new officers, and gave away prizes including $500 cash!! We had over 250 KY Business Teachers in attendance.
Our Officers for the 2019/2020 year include:
President – Ramona Bellew
Secretary/KACTE Representative – Lora Cummins
Treasurer – Debbie Barnett
Historian – Angela Rush
Region 1 Representative – Amy Hardin
Region 3 Representative – Todd Eastridge
Region 4 Representative – Ed Crutchleo
Region 5 Representative – Janie Blair
Region 6 Representative – Pam Sandlin
Communications Publicist – Ashley Fritsche
KBEA Membership Chair/SBEA/NBEA Representative – Jennifer Stubblefield
Web Editor – Greg Spears
Adviser to the Board – Jodi Adams
Secondary Representative – Betty Montgomery
Post-Secondary Representative – Dr. Marcel Robles
FBLA State Adviser – Connie Witt
PBL Representative – Kelley Walker
Parliamentarian – Dana Baker
KBEA Member Awards include:
Honorary Life Award – Dana Kelly
Outstanding Service Award – Jodi Adams
Outstanding Teacher Award – Janice Strickland
KBEA Senior Scholarships Recipients:
Jacob Rister – Calloway County High School
Nicole Franzen – Campbell County High School
For the second year in a row, KBEA gave away $500 to one member in a drawing at our brunch. Sheila Childress won the $500 cash prize!! Our members love this giveaway along with all of our prizes and everything we offer at our Social and Brunch. They have truly ignited excitement in our teachers and given them something to look forward to each year at Summer Conference.
KBEA Membership Chair/SBEA/NBEA Representative – Jennifer Stubblefield has been an inspiration and light to our organization along with teachers and students from Kentucky and across the nation. With her support, our membership has grown to over 200 members!
Teachers traveled from Kentucky to Florida to attend the SBEA Conference. There they learned from wonderful speakers and networked with members from across the Southern Region. In November, KBEA Members traveled with their students to Washington, D.C. to attend the FBLA National Fall Leadership Conference.
On February 29, 2020, Leap Day, our KBEA Board met to finalize plans for our Summer Conference. As you can see in our picture on the playground (below), you have to add some fun to your meetings! We began regional FBLA Conferences in February and early March and then things changed.
To say that the fourth quarter of the 2019-2020 school year has been different would be an understatement. COVID-19 has brought about quarantine, health concerns and fears for family and friends, online schooling, teachers learning Google Classroom, Zoom, and other technologies to be able to reach their students. No spring sports, no state tournaments for winter sports, no awards banquets, no CTSO onsite conferences, no junior/senior prom, and no face-to-face graduation, just to name a few of the missed items for students and teachers. Most teachers were given a 24-hour notice to have packets ready for students with two to three weeks' work by Friday, March 13, and they handled it like champions. We thought we would return after spring break. If we had only known that would be our last day to see our student’s faces, we would have done things a little differently. We would have taken pictures, given more smiles and hugs, encouraged them, and wished them all the best.
However, since the quarantine, we have seen so many good things happen across our state and the nation. Teachers work tirelessly to make sure they reach their students through online technology, email, phone calls, etc. School districts deliver or provide meals for pick-up for the week. Youth Service Centers have provided needed supplies. Schools have loaned out Chromebooks and laptops to students with no home computer, extended Wi-Fi into school parking lots so students can come by to utilize it. Faculty, administrators, and staff have delivered senior signs to students’ homes to be displayed in yards. Businesses have offered free food, free software and technology, and so much more. Students are being honored on Facebook and other social media in a way they were not in the past. Choirs and drama clubs have come together on Zoom to sing beautiful songs. Videos of sports teams showing social distancing, girls in their prom gowns, sidewalk chalk drawings, window paintings, and much more. Faculty, staff, and members of the community have adopted seniors to give them gifts, cards, and well wishes. Schools are coming up with ways to have virtual graduations, trying to do the best they can to honor the seniors, yet keep them, their families, and school staff safe. It is truly inspiring how everyone has come together to support each other.
Our Kentucky FBLA State and National Conferences have now gone virtual with students testing from home, creating presentations through Zoom and Google Meet to submit for judging, virtual officer elections, and awards ceremonies. Our Summer Conference is scheduled for July 26 – 29, 2020, at the Galt House in Louisville; our Social theme is The Roaring 20’s. At this time, we are unsure if we will have an onsite Summer Conference or if it will go virtual like most others. We are making plans to go virtual if needed.
Ramona Bellew, KBEA President
Website: www.kbea.org
Facebook: Kentucky Business Education Association
Instagram: @kybusinessedusa
Twitter: @kentuckybea
