Rickett named new Whitley County Deputy Superintendent

The Whitley County school district now has not only a new superintendent, but also a new Deputy Superintendent too.

Paula Rickett has been named the new deputy superintendent for the Whitley County School District.

John Siler took over as Whitley County Superintendent on July 1 replacing Scott Paul, who retired after serving 29 years with the school district, including the last eight as superintendent.

During Thursday’s Whitley County Board of Education meeting, which was Siler’s first as superintendent, he announced that he had selected Paula Rickett as the district’s new deputy superintendent.

She replaces Paula Trickett, who retired effective at the end of June after serving eight years as deputy superintendent.

“This lady has been a teacher in our district, an assistant principal, principal at the middle school, curriculum coordinator for the district, assistant superintendent and as of tonight … Paula Rickett is going to be deputy superintendent of the Whitley County school system,” Siler noted.

“I want to thank her for taking it on. She doesn’t have to. She is very strong in curriculum and building administration where she was an assistant principal and principal. In a lot of the areas where she is strong that will help me and I think the central office staff in having someone like that as deputy superintendent. I want to recognize her for stepping up and taking on this role. She will be very valuable to the district as deputy superintendent.”

Rickett said that she looks forward to working with Siler.

Both Siler and Rickett were promoted to Assistant Superintendent positions effective July 1, 2017. This was done after Trickett announced plans to retire at the end of this past fiscal year, which was June 30.

In other business Thursday, the board met

• Discussed the annual financial report, which will be presented at the August monthly board meeting. “Everything is looking good so far,” Chief Finance Officer Alicia Logan told the board.
• Met in executive session for 40 minutes to discuss pending litigation but took no formal action.

Currently, there is only one lawsuit pending against the school district.

On March 22, 2016, the parents of a 10-year-old boy, who was run over by a school bus when he got off of it in 2015, filed suit against the school district, the bus driver, the school board, and numerous school district administrators and employees.

On March 23, 2015, Jonathan Austin Chatham was riding Whitley County school bus #993 home from school when he got off the 1999 International school bus with three other children on Highway 779.

“The victim, Jonathan Chatham, age 10, had just exited the bus, but had not cleared the bus when it began to pull out,” Kentucky State Police Trooper Craig Reed, who is an accident reconstructionist, wrote in the narrative for the traffic collision report. “The juvenile went under the bus tires on the right side of the bus.”

The collision report lists “none detected” under vehicular factors, but notes two human factors, “failed to yield right of way” and “inattention.”