JCPS Appointed Keith Look to the Board. He Has Until December.
He fills the vacancy James Craig left. The term dies with the year. The November election does not.
The Jefferson County Board of Education appointed Keith Look to an at large seat Monday night, Aug. 24, giving him a place on the board only through Dec. 31, 2026.
Look was not at the special meeting at Van Hoose. The district said he will be sworn in soon.
The vacancy dates to June 9, when James Craig resigned from the board. Craig had served since 2018 and was temporarily representing District 3 after Senate Bill 4 changed the makeup of the board.
After Craig resigned, Taylor Everett began representing District 3.
Look is different. JCPS described the vacancy as an at large seat, and the Courier Journal also reported that Look will serve at large through the end of the year.
WAVE called the vacancy District 3 in its coverage Monday night, which helps explain the confusion. Look should not be considered the current District 3 member.
Applicants from anywhere in Jefferson County were eligible to apply. The board went into closed session Monday to deliberate before returning to open session and selecting Look.
Senate Bill 4 reduces the JCPS board from seven members to five beginning in January. All five seats will be decided by voters in November.
Candidate filing closed June 2. The filed District 3 field includes Taylor Everett, Gay P. Adelmann, Neil Seftor and Veda Pendleton.
Look is not on the November ballot because of Monday's appointment. His seat disappears Dec. 31 when the current board terms expire and the new five member board takes over.
Who is Keith Look?
Look previously served as principal at the Academy @ Shawnee and Meyzeek Middle School.
He left JCPS and became superintendent of Danville Independent Schools in 2014. In February 2018, the Danville school board voted 3 to 2 not to renew his contract after a packed meeting.
That is part of his public record. It does not tell parents what kind of JCPS board member he will be.
More recently, the Courier Journal, citing Look's LinkedIn profile, reported that he worked as a vice president at Territorium, an education technology company.
Public biographies also trace his earlier career through Teach for America in Baltimore, administrative work in Philadelphia and a doctorate in education policy from the University of Pennsylvania before his return to Louisville.
Superintendent Brian Yearwood praised the appointment after the vote.
“He's someone that's going to be a strong advocate for students, he's going to be very thoughtful. He's someone that is definitely in tune with governance structures, and I think it's a great choice,” Yearwood said.
Senate Bill 1 was written to shift more day to day authority from the board to the superintendent. But JCPS sued over those changes, and a Jefferson Circuit Court judge temporarily blocked several challenged provisions while that case proceeds.
So the division of power between Yearwood and the board is not as settled as the law alone might suggest.
The board still handles policy, superintendent oversight and major district decisions that reach it. But Look's appointment does not mean a new budget or tax vote is suddenly pending.
Much of the school year is already underway. The November election field is locked. The five member board coming in January will be chosen by voters, not by the current board.
What Look can influence will depend on what actually reaches the board between his swearing in and Dec. 31.
Is he a short term stabilizer with experience running JCPS schools?
Or does adding another former administrator to the board matter differently when state lawmakers have already tried to give the superintendent more authority?
Parents will have four months to watch what he does with the seat.