By Bob Vlach
Woodford Sun staff
After he heard that Sarah McCoun was not going to run for another term on the Woodford County Board of Education (BOE), Lyen Crews kept a promise he made to himself.
He would run for a seat on the BOE because of what he had witnessed before McCoun and KT Gould were elected, telling himself, “Woodford County doesn’t deserve this.”
When Crews watched BOE meetings, he did not appreciate how board members treated each other when they disagreed.
Crews said he also questioned some of the financial decisions leading up to building a new Woodford County High School, including former Superintendent Danny Adkins’ decision to move the Central Office/BOE on Pisgah Pike to the old high school on Frankfort Street.
Crews, who was born and raised in Woodford County and is running unopposed for McCoun’s seat on BOE (District 5), said he wants to help navigate Woodford County Public Schools “through these financial issues,” specifically a multi-million-dollar budget deficit that led to cuts in staffing and operating expenses.
“Boards need to be policy-setting boards. They don’t need to be operational boards. I fervently believe in that. I fervently believe in that,” said Crews, who noted he has reported to boards for years during a career in finance, mostly working for nonprofits.
“The (school) board … has too little time to chase down rabbit holes. We have to look at the big pictures,” said Crews.
“I just think they’re in a precarious financial situation right now.” He added, “It’s going to take some years to fix this.”
Crews is a 1980 graduate of WCHS, where his mom, Faye Daniel Crews, a nurse, taught health careers classes. His grandfather, Walter Crews, served on the BOE, and he has grandchildren in Woodford County schools, he said.
“When I look at my three grandchildren,” he said, “that’s my reason” for wanting to help fix the school system’s precarious financial situation because “my goal is to make the Woodford County school system the envy of the state. That’s my goal.”
Crews said he understands the importance of having a solid kindergarten through 12th grade education because of his finance career, specifically his many years working for colleges and universities.
He chose a career in finance after saying he did not want to become a certified public accountant like his dad. Once he got into the career, he discovered, “I love … everything about accounting. Accounting is the language of business,” so he became a CPA.
Crews said he was chief financial officer at four hospitals, including the former Woodford Memorial Hospital when efforts were ongoing to keep the hospital open. He has also worked in finance at two colleges, including a financially-stressed Midway College (now Midway University) from 2000-13.
For the last 10 years, Crews said he has been president of a consortium of 900 private, nonprofit colleges across the country that makes purchases as a group to reduce costs.
Running for a public office is not foreign to Crews. He ran against Carl Rollins for a seat in the state House in 2008 after telling his daughter, “If you keep complaining about and don’t do something about it, then you need to shut up.” So he ran for a state office, losing “a very close election,” he adds. He and John-Mark Hack then lost to James Kay in a special election in 2013 to fill the remaining term of Rollins.
Losing twice was enough, until this opportunity to serve on the BOE arose, and he saw an opportunity to do something.
With his responses to a Q&A for BOE candidates in this special section, Crews included this statement: “I want to thank Sarah McCoun for her service to Woodford County and the Woodford County Board of Education. Unfortunately, Ms. McCoun chose not to run for re-election. Her steadfast desire to improve Woodford County Public Schools, her respectful, professional approach to others, and her fiscally responsible opinions and decisions—even when in the extreme minority—will be missed.”