While most educators and students were excitedly focused on the last days before winter break, Nicholas Brake, who announced his departure in June, found the last moments daunting. His office is partially packed in overstuffed boxes, but his desk and walls are still filled with the items that have made it home while he has served as superintendent of Owensboro Public Schools for the last six-and-a-half years.
Brake has always been an educator. Since graduating from college with degrees in education and history, he has been promoting the evolution of education to all who come in contact with him.
“Learning is the greatest source of power,” Brake said.
According to Brake, most young people are going to follow a similar career path to his own, referring to his career switching. Most jobs do not create opportunities where people stay in them for 30 years, and this needs to be changed, especially in education, he said.
Brake said that in a recent survey by Gallup, over 54 percent of the public surveyed did not want their child to be an educator, which plays into the growing teacher shortage.
“It’s a combination of factors — pay, quality of work and teachers being trashed [in public],” Brake said.
Brake, who began his education career in 1991 as a history teacher at Daviess County High School said that the eight years he spent in the classroom would have led his career trajectory to becoming a principal, but he came to the realization that the demands that are placed on a high school principal were not easily combined with having a family, so when he was approached for an administrative job at Daviess County Public Schools’ central office, he took it.
Through this work, collaborating with Kentucky Community and Technical College System, which at the time was such a new entity, he was able to begin on the ground floor — especially with the dual credit programs that offer high school students the opportunity to earn both high school and college credits simultaneously.
“It was cutting edge,” Brake said.
Brake invested so much time and energy in the beneficial collaboration that he wrote his doctoral dissertation on the benefits of dual credit.
Through the connections he made as dean and vice president at Owensboro Community and Technical College, Brake was led to accept the job as President/CEO of the Greater Owensboro Economic Development Corporation.
When Dr. Larry Vick decided to retire as superintendent of Owensboro Public Schools, Brake said this created an opportunity to get back into local education and combine it with his knowledge in the local economy, workforce development programs and dual credit programs through OCTC.
Knowing he was joining a district steeped in tradition was not lost on Brake who mentioned that the district has been around since Ulysses S. Grant was president of the United States.
“It has always been a district of tradition, but also innovation,” Brake said, citing the work of the last three superinendents, specifically in the area of the arts.
As superintendent, Brake has looked at ways to retool the programs for the modern economy and provide options for the variety of students in the district. Brake also conducted seminars at Owensboro High School for seniors enrolled in the Bluegrass Scholar program.
Utilizing the work from his economic development position, Brake targeted students who had considered dropping out of high school and looked at the options and opportunities of different institutions that could benefit these students.
“High school is big, wide and has a broad mission,” he said. “We needed to come up with different models.”
Owensboro Innovation Academy is one such model and collaboration with the community college has been an integral part of the many high school students in both Owensboro and Daviess County Public Schools who can graduate high school and find employment.
Brake said that he believes Owensboro Middle School is in a much better place since he began and said that the high school still has work to do but that part of that is the state’s changes in graduation requirements.
He is also proud of the work he did to get matched funding for the district’s facilities which has allowed him to leave with the district in “good financial health.”
“It makes a big difference [for the funding],” he said. “I worked hard with the legislative leadership and government.”
Brake will miss the people of the district, whom he calls “top notch professionals.”
“They care greatly about the students and serving the diversity of the district,” Brake said.
As Brake considers all aspects of his job and tireless commitment to extracurricular activities, he said he will miss the ballgames and arts events the district showcases.
“Those are the big things,” Brake said. “They are so powerful.”
