Commissioner of Education Robbie Fletcher
My mother was always gifted when it came to math. I can remember going to the grocery store growing up with a budget, and she had this uncanny ability to calculate how much everything was that we needed and make it work with the finances we had.
As a 5-or-6-year-old child, I started seeing if I could compete a little bit and do the same type of things she was capable of. As those skills developed over the years, a high school classmate of mine once asked for help with algebra. When I saw the light bulb go off in their head as I was explaining the lesson, I experienced a joy I knew I needed to keep pursuing.
That wasn’t the only joy I experienced while coming up through the Martin County school district, either.
In high school, our academic team gave me more experiences than I ever could’ve imagined: my first time in a movie theater, my first Major League Baseball game, the first time I ever saw a body of water larger than the Ohio River; the list goes on and on. My coach, Frank Baldridge, pushed us to be the best we could be and invested in so many kids with help from the community.
As I progressed through my teaching career and transitioned to school administration, the experiences I had with students – either my peer group or the kids I taught – were always on my mind. How do we provide more opportunities to our children? This question has been a consistent guide for me during my educational career.
I believe KDE is already working hard toward improving the experiences of students. I have participated in the work of the Kentucky United We Learn Council, and one of my top priorities as the new commissioner of education will be to continue that council work of rethinking how we can create an accountability system that keeps vibrant student experiences, innovative practices and community collaboration at the forefront.
Education opened so many doors for me and allowed me to have all these new and interesting experiences, and that’s all I want for the students of our Commonwealth. I look forward to working with stakeholders across Kentucky to make sure we provide the most vibrant experiences we can for our children.
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