By Mark Hansel
NkyTribune managing editor
Kenton County Schools Superintendent Dr. Terri Cox–Cruey and two other senior administrators are retiring to ensure their benefits remain intact.
Jess Dykes, Director of Public Information and Community Engagement for the Kenton County School District, this morning acknowledged the retirement of Cox-Cruey, Interim Deputy Superintendent, Tracy Mann and former Deputy Superintendent Barb Martin.
“They want to retire now, under the current Kentucky Teacher Retirement System and they do not want to wait for any changes,” Dykes said. “We want to clarify that we do not know if there will be any changes in this system, there may not be.”
Martin stepped down March 1 and the retirement of Cox-Cruey and Mann is effective April 1.
Dykes said the District does not want to interfere in the legislative process and it respects the work that the current Legislature and Gov. Bevin are doing right now.
“There is a lot going on with education,” Dykes said. “I would encourage everybody to look at what’s going on with education and how that might impact their child’s school, but there is not any bill that would affect Kentucky Teacher Retirement.”
Changes to the Kentucky Teacher Retirement System have been hinted at for some time, including speculation of a modification on the policy regarding sick pay.
“The current Kentucky Teacher Retirement System is that you can roll over your sick days each year and then at the end of the career, with your retirement, that rolls into your salary,” Dykes said. “That’s how it is right now and, again, we don’t know that there will be any changes, but they want to retire under this current system.”
Dykes said all of the administrators have more than 30 years in education and all feel the time is right to retire.
“They have grandchildren, they want to do mission trips, so they feel it’s time to go out now,” Dykes said.
Cox-Cruey, who has spent more than 17 years in the Kenton County School district, announced in January that she will join a team building an elementary school in the Dominican Republic.
She will also receive a Behringer-Crawford Two-Headed Calf Award on March 30, in recognition of her career accomplishments .
Cox Cruey informed the School Board of her decision Monday night and both she and Mann announced their retirement to District staff Tuesday.
Cox-Cruey has two years remaining on her contract with the School District.
“Dr. Cox-Cruey retired before the end of her contract, so the board accepted her retirement, but they are not retiring early,” Dykes said. “They can retire when they wanted to retire and they felt like this time was right for them personally.”
The Board of Education does have a plan in place to ensure as smooth a transition as possible, under the circumstances.
“We will be naming an interim superintendent very soon and then they’ll begin the process of looking to hire a superintendent for the Kenton County School District,” Dykes said. “Our big focus right now is the kids in the classroom and their education. Our teachers are teaching and the kids are learning and that’s going to be our number one priority.”
It’s not clear at this point if the decision by the Kenton County administrators to step down will create a domino effect among other educators eligible for retirement under the current system.
Contact Mark Hansel at mark.hansel@nkytrib.com
Yeah…..not buying it. Especially since Cox-Cruey just signed a 5 year extension on her contract. This needs to be investigated further.
I agree Bob. Good thing they are gone. They could care less about kids.