KENTUCKY — During this In Focus Kentucky segment, Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman, D-Ky., joins the program. She is a native of Burgin in Mercer County, Kentucky. Before her time in public office, she attended Centre College, spent time as a high school teacher, and was an assistant principal at Nelson County High School, while also being wife and mom.

Since Coleman’s election in 2019 as Kentucky’s highest elected teacher, defending education has been a top priority for the Beshear-Coleman administration.

“And so number one, you can’t run a school system without that support staff making sure that everything is taken care of and yet so often, their work goes unnoticed and our goal the governor and my goal in this establishing this award was to make sure that these folks get the gratitude that they deserve. And so I got to join Fayette County where they named a custodian their support staff specialist of the year and then went on to Robertson County where they named one of their maintenance folks and so the department of education is going to forward those to recipients on in Kentucky and they will now compete at the national level and have an opportunity to possibly win national awards for their work. They go above and beyond every single day. They’re critically important in the lives of our kids, and to be a part of honoring them. And it’s a surprise, that’s the best part, is they have no idea that they’re getting surprised but this is something that I look forward to every year,” said Coleman.

You can watch the full In Focus Kentucky segment in the player above.