My family and I moved to Dover in 2002. As I drove into Dover for the first time I knew we would call this home! The farmlands and town reminded me a lot of Richmond Kentucky, the town where Carol and I attended Eastern Kentucky University.

Since moving to Dover I’ve worked hard to contribute to our community. I started as a volunteer for our sons’ school Parent Teacher Organizations and served on the North Dover Elementary School planning committee for two years. During this time I also worked with the Capital School District to pass an operating referendum to provide additional funding for our schools. After the referendum passed, I decided to run for the Capital School District Board of Education to ensure the district invested the funds as we told the citizens we would. And we did.

During my tenure on the School Board I worked hard to make sure your investment in our schools was spent wisely. When I started on the board in 2005 the budget called for $2.4 million in local funds to be available for emergencies at the end of our 2008 fiscal year; we closed the books on our 2008 fiscal year with over $7 million local dollars in our strategic reserve. That fund grew by over a million dollars during the 2008-2009 school year. I’ll work just as hard as your State Representative to ensure your tax dollars are invested wisely.

In addition to ensuring the Capital School District is fiscally sound, I’ve worked to promote the successes of our district and expand our alternative education programs.

To promote the successes of the district, I initiated our Alumnus recognition program to highlight Dover High School alumni. The selected alumnus is highlighted in the District’s quarterly newsletter providing our current students and our community visibility to the successes of our students and programs.

While on the board, and since, I have been a strong advocate for more alternative education programs. After a year of planning I was pleased when the district announced the consolidation of  the PEAK and Kent County Secondary Intensive Learning Center (KCSILC) programs. These programs are designed to support the needs of behaviorally challenged students. By combining these programs, the District was able to share resources and apply the money we saved to expand the enrollment and services.

During the 2006-2007 school year I had the pleasure to serve on the Murphey School Board of Directors. We are very fortunate to have this program in our community as it provides a safe, nurturing and stable home environment for over 30 children.

Although my work on the school board was not done, I felt we faced issues that needed to be addressed in the legislature. Funding for school construction and repair, vocational education and expanding our educational programs are just a few of the issues needing addressing.

We need to find solutions to provide health care coverage to the over 20,000 Kent County neighbors who live each day without health insurance. Sadly, over 5,000 are children. Even more sad is that it is estimated that over 50% are eligible, but not enrolled in the programs currently available to them. As your State Representative I’ll work harder to make sure our citizens are aware and enrolled in these programs.

I enter politics with a background in business where I’ve learned to do more with less; a lesson I believe will make me a better steward of the tax dollars you contribute to our state and local government.

Carol and I have two children, Mason and Devin. I received my Bachelor of Business Administration degrees in  Economics and Marketing from Eastern Kentucky University.