By Barbara Brady
Boone County Schools
The Boone County School Board recently recognized 20 years of service to the board by member Ed Massey.
Conner High, Massey’s district high school band came to the school board meeting to perform, and Ed Massey’s family and close friends were on hand for the celebration.
Many of us either have an idea of who we want to be or what we want to do when we grow up or we remain undecided until we meet that fork in the road forcing us to choose.
Not Attorney Ed Massey. Massey says he always knew what he wanted to do. He loved politics, law and education. You could say he was torn between several career options, not wanting to choose between them but wanting to do it all. As it turned out for him he was able to do them all and at the same time.
Massey has been an attorney for 23 years and a Boone County School Board member for 20.
One of Massey’s first serious cases as an attorney directed his life path. He represented someone he knew to be innocent and was successful in getting the case dismissed for lack of probable cause. This case heavily involved politics and education and required knowledge of the law. Ed’s three loves.
From that day forward he stayed involved in all three because he believed he could make a difference and help clean up what he saw to be problems in his community involving politics and education. So he ran for a seat on the Boone County School Board. He was opposed, but won. That was nearly 21 years ago.
Massey is a major proponent of the values of public education. His parents are retired educators and he is proud of his public education, having graduated from Lloyd Memorial High School in Erlanger.
Massey got his multifaceted career started by attending Eastern Kentucky University majoring in English but ended up getting his degree in Police Administration. He chose law enforcement because at the time, the Law Enforcement College at EKU was taught primarily by lawyers, another one of his career interests.
Was a substitute teacher
From there he enrolled at Chase Law School and taught in Northern Kentucky public schools as a substitute teacher while going to law school. However, at this point his career choice was beginning to narrow. He convinced himself while he wanted to be involved in education, he could have as big an impact and maybe even more influence on education as an attorney as he was already having as a teacher.
Almost immediately Massey dove in to learn everything he could about how the education system works. He started joining and participating in educational organizations. He has been a member, officer and president of the Kentucky School Boards Association (KSBA), a member, director and officer of the National School Boards Association (NSBA), sat on the board of directors of the National PTA; served on the Local School Board Members Advisory Council to the Commissioner of Education and The American Public Education Foundation.
He currently serves as a board member of The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Operation Honor – Veteran Proud and is a Freedom Writer for The Freedom Writers Association based in Long Beach, California. He is also an advocate for “My Life, My Power,” an anti-bullying-mentor program.
A visit to Massey’s office tells you a lot about the man.
Conner High School band honors Ed Massey for 20 years on the board.
He is a well read, well-traveled, generous man who has many interests. His special personal interests include his love and respect for United States veterans, NASCAR and photography. Through his profession as an attorney and national school board member he has visited many places, 43 states and 8 countries to be exact. His visits are an exchange of learning experiences and information.
Massey now begins his 21st year serving on the school board. When he started on the board Boone County Schools was a district of just 8,500 students. Today, the district is two and a half times bigger with 21,000 students.
Boone County Schools is now the second largest district in the tri-state and the third largest district in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He says many things have changed over the years. While he’s always served with great people, he says the board was divided on most decisions in the past with 3-2 decisions most of the time. But those were different times with different board members.
Mutual respect on the board
Today, he serves with Karen Byrd, Dr. Maria Brown, Bonnie Rickert and new board member Matt McIntire taking the place of recently retired school board member Steve Templeton. The difference today Massey says is a mutual respect that didn’t exist more than a decade ago.
“We are not perfect but we are not dysfunctional either,” he says.
In his career Massey has had many interesting cases and clients and he’s been on both sides. He has represented the lawyer for the NSBA, the Northern Kentucky Educational Cooperative, the Graves County Board of Education and he’s even been in the unenviable position of having to sue school boards.
Ask him if he sees a conflict of interest in any of it and he says, “No, because if you are truly about the students and their safety and rights are being compromised, poor governance needs to be addressed.” He says his loyalties are strictly with the students. “I will always stand up for the students even if it costs me my position on the school board.”
Massey’s life is not just about education and the law.
He says his passions are in this order: “my faith, my family and my friends.”
His faith guides his life. He is a devout Christian. He and his wife have been married almost 30 years having been teenaged sweethearts. They have three children. Their oldest daughter is a new teacher, their middle daughter is a senior at Western Kentucky University and their youngest daughter is a senior at Conner High School.
At age 49 Ed says he still has much to do and is considering many options one which includes going back to school to get his doctorate in education (Ed. D). He says he wants to be involved in educational governance for the rest of his life. That could mean something legislative, a congressional position or something within the Department of Education.
Law is Ed Massey’s occupation but education is his passion. He says, “We need to prepare those who will lead and celebrate those who have.”
The only other Boone County board member who has served more than 20 years is Karen Byrd. She was recognized in 2014.