Beech Tree News Network

Josh Belcher, the principal at North Butler Elementary School, is among a select group of school leaders who received a year-long executive-level leadership training usually reserved for Kentucky’s top CEOs. The Leadership Institute for School Principals is a program of the Kentucky Chamber Foundation.  Belcher’s extensive training was paid in full by Alliance Resource P CEO and University of Kentucky Athletics donor Mr. Joe Craft. 

Elementary, middle and high school principals representing both public and private schools applied for the institute. The participants were selected by an extensive process by an advisory board made up of business leaders and school superintendents. View a full list of principals attending the institute at principalsleadky.com.

Belcher and the other selected principals attended classes this summer at the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, N.C., a top-ranked global provider of executive education founded in 1970 that established an education and nonprofit section in 1988. The principals then attended follow-up sessions in the fall and winter.  They will meet one last time in Frankfort come late April for a celebration luncheon to celebrate the journey.

“I am very honored and privileged for the opportunity that the Kentucky Chamber and the generous Kentucky businesses have given me to better serve the students, teachers, and community of Butler County. A very special thank you goes to Mr. Joe Craft for his generous contribution to pay for this experience in full.  It is very generous of a man of his business stature and success to donate funding to help improve the quality of our schools. All the training, lodging and travel were paid for by Mr. Craft. For him to choose North Butler and myself from the list of great schools and principals is a great honor.  I would also like to say a thank you to Mr. Robert Tuck for recommending me to this experience.  I look forward to applying the knowledge gained from this experience to my own educational leadership for the kids of Butler County.”  Said Belcher about the experience.

“Employers understand the positive impact of strong leadership in the workplace, and the same is true of schools,” noted Dave Adkisson, secretary of the Kentucky Chamber Foundation and president and CEO of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. “That’s why we think it is important that Kentucky principals be given executive-level training similar to that provided for corporate leaders.”