The superintendent of Owensboro Public Schools is stepping down at the end of this month, with an interim superintendent taking over at the start of the new year. 

Superintendent Nick Brake has led Owensboro Public Schools since 2013. He announced in June he would leave the position at the end of this calendar year. 

The school board has named district Chief Academic Officer Matthew Constant as interim superintendent beginning Jan. 1, 2020.

Constant said he is humbled and appreciative that the board has the confidence in him to lead the district during the search for a permanent superintendent.

“Dr. Brake is leaving us in such a good, good place in our district," Constant said. "He’s done a whole lot of things to advance us forward, and I think the interim’s job is to keep that forward momentum without infusing too much change.”

Isabella Back, 18, pulls her jacket tight around herself as she crosses the gravel driveway. “So we’re going about 10 feet from my house to my dad’s workshop,” she says, and pushes through a door in a big, red barn.

The Kona, Kentucky, shop is crowded with cluttered work tables and hulking machines, and the sound of whirring and grinding fills the air. The shop smells of paint and other chemicals. Back’s dad, Rod, started this metal fabrication shop after he got laid off from coal mining. He mostly makes signs for local businesses. He waves a friendly hello.

A Democratic state lawmaker exploring a run against U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell says he would be committed to the Green New Deal if elected to Congress. 

State Representative Charles Booker from Jefferson County was in Bowling Green on Friday where he picked up an endorsement from the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led climate activism group. 

Booker grew up in Louisville’s West End, the poorest zip code in the state. Booker said neighborhoods like his are disproportionately affected by environmental hazards.

Outgoing Gov. Matt Bevin claimed he lost his reelection because Democrats “harvested votes in urban areas.”

Gov.-elect Andy Beshear named some of his cabinet secretaries. And education commissioner Wayne Lewis defended himself as his job might be in jeopardy in the new administration.

Jonese Franklin from member station WFPL talked to Capitol reporter Ryland Barton for this week’s edition of Kentucky Politics Distilled.

This season of Lost River Sessions Live wrapped up last month with a performance by Kentucky natives the Whiskey Bent Valley Boys and Willie Huston at the Capitol Arts Center in Bowling Green, KY.