Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday, right, files articles of incorporation for the Fund for Transforming Education in Kentucky with Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, center. Also pictured are President and CEO of the Kentucky Chamber Dave Adkisson and Rep. Carl Rollins.

Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday, right, files articles of incorporation for the Fund for Transforming Education in Kentucky with Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, center. Also pictured are President and CEO of the Kentucky Chamber Dave Adkisson and Rep. Carl Rollins.

Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday on Wednesday filed the Articles of Incorporation for the Fund for Transforming Education in Kentucky, an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.

The fund is designed to help support innovative strategies in Kentucky public schools, promoting creative and collaborative solutions by conducting research, spurring dialogue, incubating innovative ideas, brokering partnerships and scaling promising practices.

The corporation will have an independent board of trustees and staff, and it will seek to access funding sources to provide support to school districts outside of traditional state, federal and local sources. The passage of House Bill 37 in the 2012 Regular Session of the Kentucky General Assembly opened the doors to innovation in the state’s public school districts, and this fund will help leverage resources to support districts as they provide students with the knowledge, skills and dispositions required for success in further learning, meaningful work and citizenship in a globally-oriented world.

The fund’s board of trustees will hold its first meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 18, at the offices of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce in Frankfort. The members of the board are:

  • Lt. Gov. Jerry Abramson
  • Dave Adkisson, president and CEO of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce
  • Buddy Berry, superintendent of the Eminence Independent school district
  • Billy Harper, president and CEO of Harper Industries in Paducah
  • Mary John O’Hair, dean of the University of Kentucky College of Education
  • Rep. Carl Rollins
  • Stu Silberman, executive director of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence
  • Mary Gwen Wheeler, executive director of 55,000 Degrees in Louisville and a member of the Kentucky Board of Education