By Stephenie Steitzer
Enquirer contributor

LOUISVILLE - Covington Independent School District Superintendent Jack Moreland was honored Sunday in Louisville as Kentucky's Superintendent of the Year.

District spokesman Bill Weathers said the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents named Mr. Moreland its Superintendent of the Year.

"It's a very special thing," Mr. Moreland said.

"It's truly an honor and it's even more of an honor when you think about who selected me, which were my peers."

Mr. Moreland will travel to New Orleans in February for the national Superintendent of the Year presentation. The top superintendents from all 50 states are eligible for the national award.

The Bracken County native came out of retirement two years ago to lead the troubled school district, which was under the threat of state takeover because of failing test scores.

Since he became superintendent of Covington, all five of the failing schools have climbed out of that category.

Mr. Moreland was superintendent of the Dayton Independent School District in Dayton, Ky., before he retired.

He was also a key figure in the 1980s legal action that led to the Kentucky Education Reform Act, serving as president of the group of school boards that brought suit against the commonwealth.

The Kentucky Supreme Court, in a landmark ruling, ultimately decided that the state's educational system was unconstitutional because it did not offer equal education to students in all school districts.

KERA was the legislation that rebuilt Kentucky's schools from the ground up and enacted widespread education reform after Gov. Wallace Wilkinson signed it into law.