My name is Matt Daneen, and I'm the senator that represents Hardin County and a part of Southern Jefferson County, and that is the 10th District.

I have 29 years in education.

I have been both the teacher and a school administrator, and I am a small business owner.

I've served on several civic organization boards and throughout my time on the city Council for the last two terms.

I've also been able to come up here and visit Frankfort quite a bit and in preparation, hopefully for for this position.

So I'm excited about it.

And I just I felt compelled when the opportunity arose after serving on our city council and seeing what we could accomplish on that level.

I really was interested in trying to expand that influence and try to maybe I can do some greater things on a countywide level and a district level and quite frankly throughout the whole Commonwealth.

So I just wanted to take that opportunity to maybe see what we could accomplish up here.

One of the things that I'm really passionate about is workforce development, and that, of course, is in the field of education as well as other fields across our state.

We are really looking to add additional employees and I think that is resonating throughout the state in every profession.

For example, my Senate Bill 49 that I was able to introduce the first week of this session, it takes the opportunity to expand on what is called an alternative certification program in what is known as option six.

And a lot of our teaching jobs sometimes go without applicants.

But option six is an alternative way to bring people into the profession that may not have originally started in education, but have maybe gone into another profession and found a need or a desire to want to come into education and share those skills with students.

My bill simply expands that program from a three year program to a five year program.

We have other issues, I mean, from juvenile justice reform and all of those things as well.

We're going to have to keep working to improve.

And I think that's the great thing about being here with other senators.

I think we have a great bunch to work with, and that's on both sides of the aisle.

I hope they find me to be a levelheaded well read and dedicated public servant, and I'm looking for opportunities to always improve our communities and our commonwealth.

And I think they will find that in the way I legislate here.