Green County Superintendent Ben Davenport shared a message about administrators’ purpose to the district during the district’s opening day message to all staff this year. He was joined on stage by his grandson, Easton Burriss. Photo Courtesy of Green County
The new superintendent of Green County, Ben Davenport, is focusing on increasing intervention supports for students with disabilities, gathering feedback from employees and continuing support for vibrant learning opportunities in the district.
Vibrant learning experiences are powerful moments when learning is meaningful, engaging, and connected to real life. They move beyond traditional classroom instruction to spark curiosity, creativity and collaboration, preparing students with the skills they need to thrive in school, work and life.
At the elementary level in Green County, one vibrant learning experience involves students taking trips to businesses and agencies in their community to learn about what people do there. Students go to the local courthouse, the county attorney’s office, the school board office, a local hospital, vet clinic, pharmacy or another place they’re interested in. In a group, students build 3D models of those buildings and write explanations about what happens in the buildings.
“They’ll display those at a spring show for the community, and we try to incorporate something into the (school) board meeting,” Davenport said. “We’ve incorporated with some other things at our school events, so people will come and those students share those experiences.”
Another vibrant learning experience in the district involves welding students selling their work to people in the community. Students get a budget and decide on a project that fits their budget, then they build their projects and the money they make from selling projects acts as a fundraiser for the program. Last school year, one group of students built fire pits and sold them throughout the community.
“It is a great fundraiser for the program, but it’s also a wonderful learning opportunity because they had to work out the budget, the materials, what all the expenses were, and they worked through all that with their teachers,” Davenport said. “Some of those types of experiences are growing throughout the district, and the more people see it, the more they’re like, ‘Hey, I want to be a part of that.’”
Davenport has spent his whole life in the district, going through the district’s schools and graduating from Green County High School. His family – from his parents to his children to his grandchildren – either attended or are currently attending schools in the district.
“It’s just a good place; huge community support in all areas,” Davenport said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s athletics, academics, anything that you’ve got to do, the community is a huge supporter for us.”
He started teaching in Green County in 2000. He has been an alternative teacher at Green County High School, assistant principal at the district’s primary school and principal at the intermediate school, primary school and high school. He became assistant superintendent in 2024 and superintendent in July this year.
He has a bachelor’s degree in agriculture from Western Kentucky University along with a master’s degree in education instructional leadership and a Rank 1 certification from Eastern Kentucky University.
Davenport started a new initiative when he became superintendent to meet with every employee in the district. They answer three questions about what they expect from him as a superintendent, what they think is great at Green County Schools, and what they think should be an area of priority focus.
“I’m about three-fourths of the way through those meetings and I’ve already collected that data … so we can work on strengths and growth areas and see where we need to focus and make a real impact for people,” Davenport said.
He’s also focusing more on intervention and multi-tiered system of supports in the lower grades to make sure they’re meeting the needs of students with different learning abilities.
“We’ve seen a few more students that have some severe disabilities in our district and that’s kind of been a focus to make sure we’re meeting the needs of those students, getting them where they need to be, getting the right interventions in and getting the right people in the right place,” he said.
At the middle school level, the district is exploring ways to increase opportunities for students wanting to pursue career and technical education pathways and making current opportunities better.
“It’s about our people, we want to make a high-quality product for our students and then getting our people that we work with daily to narrow that focus into one focus to get kids here to school successfully, to help them have a great experience, to give them the tools they need to do whatever they want at the next level,” Davenport said.
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