By Greg Paeth
NKyTribune Senior Reporter
Although she grew up in the Cincinnati suburb of Forest Park and attended the University of Cincinnati, the newest member of the Covington Board of Education has some fairly deep roots in the city.
April Brockhoff
April Frese Brockhoff, who described herself as a “stay at home mom,” has lived in Covington since about 1990, including a couple of years when she owned a craft and gift shop called Favorite Things on Main Street in the city’s MainStrasse business and nightlife district.
After she left college, Brockhoff moved to Covington and had several jobs before she decided to go into business for herself. From about 1996-99, Brockhoff she owned Favorite Things, merged it into another MainStrasse business called the Crooked Tree Gallery and then moved her business to Madeira. When she became pregnant she decided to close her shop and concentrate on her family.
She has two sets of twins in the Covington schools: David and Thomas, who are 16, and Maggie and Nicholas, who are 14. Her husband John is a registered nurse and a surgical assistant at Mercy Hospital in Anderson Township.
Brockhoff said she traces her interest in the Covington schools back to the time when her older children had entered the Covington school system’s James E. Biggs Early Childhood Education Center on Scott Street. She worked with an advisory council at the center and continued to be an active parent as her children progressed through the schools.
She played a more formal role in the schools when she served as a member of the site-based council at Sixth District School for six years and as a member of site-based council at Holmes High School since last June.
“I was just interested in my kids getting a good education when they started in pre-school,” Brockhoff said. “You get involved because you care about your kids and you want to advocate for them and then you become an advocate for all the kids.
“I want to make a difference in the schools along with the other board members and I know superintendent (Alvin Garrison) wants to do everything he can to push the schools forward,” said Brockhoff, 47.
Brockhoff was appointed to the board to fill the vacancy created last November by the resignation of Kerry Holleran, who stepped down after she took a job in Frankfort.
Brockhoff said she plans to attend two days of training for new school board members in late February and will attend her first Covington school board meeting Feb. 9, when she will be sworn in.
The appointment runs through the end of this year and Brockhoff would have to run in the November election if she wants to serve the final year of Holleran’s four-year term in 2016.
“Barring anything unforeseen happening, I would say I would run in November,” she said.
Brockhoff was one of four candidates who had applied to the state board of education to fill the vacancy. Other members of the board are Glenda Huff, Julie Geisen Scheper, Jerry Avery and Joyce Baker.
Brockhoff said she has lived in the Wallace Woods neighborhood since 1997 and moved to her home on Sterrett Avenue in 2005. Huff also lives on Sterrett Avenue.
