Lexington, SC (Paul Kirby) - Kathy Henson, a mother and career educator, has filed to run for Lexington School District One's board of trustees. Henson lives with her family in the Oak Grove area of Lexington County.
Henson is married to Devin and the couple have twins, one boy and one girl, who are both students in the 6th grade at Meadow Glen Middle School. They attended Oak Grove Elementary and will eventually attend River Bluff High School. She grew up in Lexington and attended Lexington Elementary, Lexington Middle, and later graduated from Lexington High School. After completing college, she began teaching full time and has taught in Lexington One at Lexington High.
Henson is now an educator at the University of South Carolina School of Education. There she works with future math teachers. She performs daily task like evaluating student teachers during the final stages of their education. She also administers several federal grant programs that help teachers to pursue their national board certifications. Henson said she also has the opportunity through the grant programs to help transform teachers into teacher leaders. Those teacher leaders can then be strategically used to lift the standards of other educators, often at underperforming schools.
Because of her work with the grants, Henson has worked in schools in all five Lexington County districts and several in Richland County. “I think my experiences in all of these schools will help me if I'm elected to the school board. I've been able to see what works and what doesn't and all of that can be applied in our district. I'm excited to have the opportunity to share that knowledge and those experiences with the other board members.”
Henson said during a recent interview that several things made her decide to run for school board. First, she has a deep love for Lexington County. She also is naturally inquisitive and felt that when she attended meetings she left with unanswered questions. “There were things that I wanted to ask but it just didn’t seem to be the right time or setting for me to do that. I feel that a lot of citizens in the district have questions and they deserve answers. I believe I could act as their advocate and ask questions for them,” she said. “They might not always like the answer they receive, but everyone deserves an answer when they want to know what’s going on.”
Henson also said that she feels it’s time for the board to have an educator on it. “I think the board needs to have someone serving that’s stood in front of a classroom and students and knows what teachers go through every day. Then, teachers will have a true voice on the school board.”
In addressing some areas where District One could improve Henson said, “I think that too often, parents of districts students can feel alienated because of poor communications. When it comes to communications between the district and its parents, the district could do a better job of helping them understand what’s going on with their child. Communication should be aimed at everyone and should be done in a way that everyone can understand,” Henson concluded. As an example, she used a recent communication from the district via e-mail. “There was this long email that didn’t contain the information that really mattered. At the end of the email, there was a link to a .PDF document. I clicked on that, downloaded it, and then read through it. At the end was the real information that people needed to see. I wondered to myself how many busy people read that long email, downloaded the .PDF file, and read through it to get the message. I think we can do better than that.”
Henson is no stranger to leadership roles. She served as the president of her children's schools PTA for a number of years and also served on the School Improvement Council. She also was honored to be selected to serve on the Superintendent’s Council and in various other advisory roles dealing with the bond referendum and the district's response to COVID-19 over the summer.
“I welcome people who want to call me and ask questions. They can also watch some of the candidate forums on Facebook so they will be informed voters,” she concluded. Henson’s Facebook can be found at www.facebook.com/khensonlex1board. Her personal mobile number is 803 413-7161.
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