Ashland Daily Independent. June 16, 2024.
Editorial: Celebrate state parks
One of Kentucky’s greatest assets is natural beauty, from waterfalls to mountains to rolling pastures. It’s a great time to celebrate that beauty, as this year marks 100 years of state parks in the commonwealth.
It all began in 1926, when the State Park Commission received $25,000, and two years later, $58,000, for developing the state’s first four parks. They were Pine Mountain in Pineville, Natural Bridge in Slade, the Blue and Gray in Elkton and Pioneer Memorial (now called Old Fort Harrod) in Harrodsburg.
The parks system has grown from those original four to 44, covering 51,198 land acres, 552,838 water acres, 418 miles of walking trails and 203 miles of cycling trails.
Kentucky State Park Chairman Russ Meyer said much is planned to celebrate the milestone, including special events at parks across the state.
“It will be a time to celebrate the rich history of the Kentucky State Parks and remember the hard work of the team and staff who have provided wonderful experiences for Kentuckians and visitors from around the world,” Meyer said. “It will be a time to honor those who have contributed to parks’ success and to share these experiences with others.”
In addition to special activities related to the 100th anniversary, the agency is producing the book “Kentucky State Parks: 1924-2024,” a 300-page publication featuring park history and photos of state parks, which will be released this year and will be available at state park gift shops.
We are proud of our state and treasure all its natural beauty. State parks were created specifically to showcase and preserve its beauty and honoring that beauty on the 100th anniversary of the birth of the parks is an appropriate celebration that promises to offer good times this summer.
We applaud the foresight it took to create the state park system in Kentucky, and look forward to see what’s in store.
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Bowling Green Daily News. June 15, 2024.
Editorial: Steps to address students’ mental health a strong positive
Children face different challenges today than in decades past — more stressors sometimes from family settings, the recent pandemic, social media pressures — things those in other generations did not face in such abundance or at all.
It’s a positive to see recent steps taken by the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the Bowling Green Independent School District to address the mental health of children.
Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman recently summarized her career in education, with a glaring omission – in all her educational experiences, up to earning her doctorate, she’d never had training on student mental health.
Now, Kentucky is one of six states that has been selected for a national, yearlong program focused on achieving state-level mental health goals.
Coleman credits this to her team’s focus on the youth mental health crisis ever since COVID-19 hit in 2020.
She expressed her optimism about the selection and lamented the educational framework she has that was minus training on students’ mental health.
“What that tells me is there’s at least half of the educated workforce that has never been prepared to deal with these challenges that we’re facing right now,” she said. “How to talk about it, how to recognize and refer, and that’s alarming to me.”
Kentucky, with five other states, will participate in the National Governors Association’s latest mental health initiative – The Policy Academy to Drive Thriving Youth Mental Health and Wellbeing.
The academy is designed to leverage national resources and expertise to advance statewide mental health goals. Coleman’s Kentucky team will meet with NGA regularly to work through challenges.
There are three main goals – explore ways to better fund mental health services in schools, train educators to identify and support students’ – and teachers’ – mental health, and establish a statewide mental health coordinating body.
A focus on students’ mental health is not new, but in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, more problems arose, and the ramification of that lack of social growth and academic time in school still affects students and their mental maturation process.
BGISD, meanwhile, has expanded its suicide prevention policy by adding resources to students in grades 4-12.
The new suicide prevention policy expands on what the district has already been practicing, which was a one-time prevention training in September across grades 6-12.
“I think that’s just a realization that we just have a lot of kids in distress and we want to make sure everybody has the tools to help kids when they need help,” BGISD Superintendent Gary Fields said. “Students are provided with a slew of suicide prevention information. We do some surveys with them, allowing kids to let us know if they’re having a rough time.”
We applaud the efforts, both state and local, to provide help where it is needed — in our school systems.
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