Opinion

Like most everyone else, we are continuing to try to digest the results we read last week from the state’s new accountability tests for public schools.

Like Shelby County Superintendent James Neihof, we “continue to feel challenged” by what we saw.

Whether you think standardized testing works or whether this particular set of processes is appropriate, this is the system through which we for the foreseeable future will educate our students and evaluate our teachers and administrators.

In early August of this year, I noticed a small ad in the Sunday Louisville Courier-Journal concerning upcoming concerts at the old Grand Theater in Frankfort. Since I have performed as an entertainer, beginning at the age of 4, this quickly got my attention.

After going over the rather long list as well as the dates, my focus centered on a guitar player on the evening of Sept. 25, knowing this would also be a pleasant surprise for my wife, Iris, and we would in all likelihood also enjoy dinner at a nearby Frankfort restaurant.

We are in awe of Claire Kelly. We wish we had just half her courage and determination.

In case you aren’t familiar with Ms. Kelly, she’s the junior from Shelby County High School who on Thursday rappelled down the 30-story Lexington Financial Center.

And why did Ms. Kelly do this? Well, because it was there.

She’s part of the Venture Club, an affiliate of scouting, but this bouncing ride from on high primarily stemmed from her commitment to ad-venture.

The foreign policy debate Oct. 22 between President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney was designed to help voters better understand each man’s vision for America’s role abroad. While I have publicly taken issue with both candidates on aspects of their foreign policies, there is no question that Governor Romney remains the right choice for Americans on Nov. 6.

On Nov. 6, voters will head to the polls to cast their ballots for president, Congress, state House and Senate and some local offices. But Kentuckians will also have an opportunity to cast their votes on the following proposal:

On Nov. 6, among the many important decisions voters will be asked to make is one that they should not make: to pass an amendment to the state constitution that establishes hunting and fishing as legacy activities in the state.

That is shorthand language for the Personal Right to Hunt and Fish Amendment, which was placed on the ballot by a quick and somewhat quietly authored House Bill 1 that passed the legislature earlier this year and became part of the election process without so much as a peep from the legislature.

With recent columns and letters to the editor in The Sentinel-News regarding Shelby County Public Schools, I wanted to provide my perspective having not been directly involved with SCPS for the past eight years after serving as superintendent for 16 years from 1988 until 2004.

Distinguished, Proficient or Needing Improvement – these are the categories by which Kentucky schools will be labeled in just a couple of weeks. Schools above the 90th percentile will be Distinguished. Those falling between the 70th and the 89th percentile will be Proficient. Those below the 70th will be classified as Needing Improvement.

Let me tell you something about the newest critter on our farm.

No, this isn’t the magnificent, golden-tailed hawk that comes to sit on the black wooden fences separating two of our paddocks, more or less watching the horses eat their fill.

This isn’t about the smudge-sized black field mice I saw scurrying under the leaves of the decaying melon patch as I was turning over the garden for fall – one of whom, I must confess, met an untimely interface when he was unearthed by the blades of my tiller, God rest his little vermin soul.