PINEVILLE — ”I urge that we observe this week by taking time to recognize and acknowledge the influence of educational professionals on our lives,” Bell County Judge-Executive Albey Brock proclaimed on Monday at the Pine Mountain State Resort Park, before a group of approximately 60 educators from the Kentucky Department of Education. The group is gathered at the park for a week-long training. Participants include Highly Skilled Educators, Achievement Gap Coordinators and targeted Assistant Coaches.

Judge Brock was on hand Monday morning to welcome the educators to the area and sign a proclamation declaring this week “Highly Skilled Educators Week”. The proclamation states that it is a “Proclamation of the Bell County Fiscal Court ensuring that every child in Bell County and across Kentucky receives a quality education.”

Along with a full week of training courses and visiting each Bell County school center, the educators will be treated to a host of local attractions including a tour of the Abraham Lincoln Library & Museum at LMU, a behind-the-scenes tour of the Cumberland Gap Tunnel and a dinner featuring bluegrass music by the Harold McGeorge Group.

This is the first time that the Department of Education has held a training of this size locally.

Michelle Martin is a staff writer for the Middlesboro Daily News and can be reached via e-mail at mmartin@middlesborodailynews.com.

Pictured above are more than 60 educators from all over the Commonwealth that will spend the week in Pineville,, training during “Highly Skilled Educator’s Week”.

(MICHELLE MARTIN/ Middlesboro Daily News)