For the second time in a matter of months, the Clinton County School Board is seeking a replacement member, following the resignation/retirement of board member Paula Key.

Key, who still had two years left on her current term, was serving her third term as a member of the school board. She had been a board member for 10 years, with the last six of those serving as board chairperson.

Key had represented the Speck and Illwill precincts and a new person from that district will be appointed by the Kentucky Department of Education following the usual posting of the position and interviews with perspective applicants.

The resignation was presented to Superintendent Charlotte Nasief on January 10.

Although it is the normal process to resign the seat, Key noted in an interview last Friday with the Clinton County News that she referred to it more as her “retiring” from the office, noting she had been considering it for the past several months.

Key said that she had always said she would not seek the seat once all her children were out of school, but although her youngest daughter is still a junior at Clinton County High School, she said she decided to retire now and spend more time with her family.

Key, who is probably best known recently for her position in the local employment office, had some 28 years as a state government employee before retiring a couple of years ago.

She is married to Robert Key of Albany and has three children, Christopher, 37; Cassidy, 19, a student at Western Kentucky University and 16-year-old Bobbiann, a junior at CCHS.

“I have a lot going on right now, and I felt it was time to let someone else take over and serve,” she said, adding, “I’ve thought about (retiring) for a while now,” reiterating that she promised herself that once her younger children had graduated, she would not seek re-election.

Key was unopposed in two of the three elections she had run in, including her last election two years ago.

“I care about education, but I want to spend more quality time with my family and youngest child,” said Key.

“I enjoyed seeing the progress the school system has made as a whole and seeing kids excel,” said Key.

In an example, a decade ago the local school district was in the bottom half of seeing students either college or career ready and, according to Key, last year well over half of the high school graduates were either college or career ready, an emphasis the local district has dwelled on for several years now.

“Although the primary work that has made our school improve lies within the staff, it is a sense of accomplishment for me to have been a part of that,” she added.

The outgoing board member says she feels the school board is in good hands with a great group of members. “I think the current members all have a vested interest in education and want to see our system do even better,” she said.

Key said she would miss some things about being a board member, including the people she worked with, the office staff, superintendent and others and said she appreciated all the people in her district and community for having faith in her to be a board member for the past 10 years.