CHECK Home > About CHECK > CHECK Board biographies
At the summer 2003 biennial meeting of representatives of CHECK member support groups, our election of officers and regional representatives for 2003-5 was held. Below is a listing of the current Board. We are currently featuring biographies of each of the Board members in the CHECK News. This page will be updated as they become available.
Regional Representatives are elected based on House Congressional Districts. MPE (Kansas City) appoints the regional representative for District 3. TPA (Wichita) may appoint a representative in addition to a District 4 representative that may be elected at the biennial meeting. Below is the listing of current regional representatives:
Office manager: Jan Remboldt, Topeka (non-voting member)
David and Cathy Barfield were married in 1979 in Minnesota after meeting three years earlier in Florida on a summer project with Campus Crusade for Christ. They spent four years on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ, three of them as vocational missionaries in Southern Africa, where their first daughter was born. In 1984, David, Cathy, and their 4-month-old daughter moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where they continue to live.
Currently, the Barfields have three daughters, ages 20, 18 and 14, whom they have home-schooled from the beginning. This school year, the older two are attending the University of Kansas while living at home and the youngest is in 9th grade.
David works for the Division of Water Resources in Topeka, where he has worked since his return to Lawrence. Currently, David's primary duties at DWR relate to interstate river agreements and disputes. He spends much of his time doing technical work to support Kansas' litigation against Colorado concerning the waters of the Arkansas River and implementing a recent settlement of a lawsuit with Nebraska and Colorado concerning the waters of the Republican River.
The Barfields have always followed an eclectic approach in selecting curriculum. In their early years of homeschooling, the focus was on instilling a love of reading and learning using Sing, Spell, Read, Write, units from KONOS, and math. In the elementary years, they added subjects from a variety of vendors. In junior high, they did two years with Sonlight as the core of their curriculum. During the high school years they used Konos for high school students and help organize classes for homeschool students in the Lawrence in the sciences, writing, speech, and Spanish.
As David and Cathy began homeschooling in 1989, TEACH, Lawrence's homeschool group, was beginning a significant transition from a small group meeting monthly for units and field trips to a larger organization with more groups and activities. At the beginning of the 1990 school year, David attended an organizational meeting with Cathy, asked a few questions, and David and Cathy were given leadership responsibility for the group, which they have held since.
Also in 1990, David attended, on behalf of TEACH, the organizational meetings which ultimately lead to the formation of CHECK. David was elected its first treasurer in 1991. Since 1995, David has been CHECK's chairman.
Cathy is a biology teacher by training. She and other homeschooling moms have taught biology and chemistry since 1997 (David taught physics one year as well).
Two years ago the Barfields moved to a home in rural Douglas County.
The Barfields attend Community Bible Church in Lawrence, where David has been an elder since 1986.
Kent has been married to Christy since 1975, and they have been blessed with 11 children. Their first two are married and they have three grandchildren.
After graduation from Kansas University, Kent and Christy were married and shortly thereafter, Kent became an infantry officer in the Marine Corps. Kent received a juris doctor from Washburn University School of Law. He has been in solo practice since 1982 in Topeka, specializing in adoption, wills and trusts, and probate law.
The Vincents started home education in the fall of 1981 when Kent was on the board of directors for Cair Paravel School, a private Christian day school in Topeka. Shortly thereafter, the Cair Paravel Satellite School was formed, which allowed home educated students to integrate some of their activities with the traditional school. However, the Vincent children have always been home educated except for some college courses. When the Satellite School became too large for continued oversight by the Cair Paravel school board, Cornerstone Family School was formed in the late 1980s. Kent continues to serve as the legal advisor to CFS.
The Vincent family enrolled in the pilot class for the Advanced Training Institute in 1984 and continue in the program to the present. ATI utilizes a unit study approach centered on Scriptural concepts along with curricula of choice for academics, character training, and apprenticeship. Several of their children have participated in ATI ministry and apprenticeship opportunities.
Kent has served as the Legislative Liaison for CHECK since its inception. His primary involvement has been to respond to issues that come up in the State Legislature or State Board of Education, and to establish positive relations with public officials. The main thrust of this effort has been through the Day Under the Dome, the annual legislative event for Kansas home educators, hosted by Cornerstone Family School. Kent also represents families in homeschooling disputes privately and as local counsel for HSLDA.
Kent and Christy have attempted to encourage home educators through presentations on parenting, legalities, organization, dad's/mom's role, marriage, and purity of relations between young adults.
The Vincents are members of the Christian Family Fellowship, a family-centered church in Topeka.
My wife, Kathy, and I have four children, Rachel, 15; Brianna, 12; Meredith, 7; and Garrison, 4. We have been married for 20 years. We began home educating in January 1992 after moving to Manhattan from Kansas City. We have used a variety of curriculum over the last 7ü years. We attend Faith Evangelical Free Church where numerous homeschooling families also attend.
I have twice been Chairman of the local support group in Manhattan, known as CHIEF (Christian Homes in Educational Fellowship), and I am starting my first term as editor for our group’s newsletter. I have also worked as a skills coach for our girls and boys basketball teams.
Professionally, I am self-employed as an insurance sales representative and am also a authorized dealer for Cellular One in Manhattan, with 14 years of experience in the wireless business.
I am currently employed with Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Co. in Burlington. Pam, who is a domestic engineer, and I moved to Kansas in 1983 after 13 years in the Nuclear Navy. Pam was born and raised in North Platte, Nebr. I was also born in North Platte and lived there until the eighth grade. My family then moved to Greeley, Colo., where I graduated from high school at Greeley West. I then spent 4 years at the University of Colorado.
Being the squared away college student I was, I joined the nuclear Navy when I left Boulder. I went from marching in a couple of anti-war marches to the nuclear navy in about 3 months, without batting a scruple. Between the Navy and Jesus Christ, I grew up a lot between my 22nd and 27th years, when Pam and I were married in Charleston, SC. I spent the 93 days after our wedding day on a submarine in the North Atlantic playing peek-a-boo with Russian submarines. A honeymoon with 108 guys.
We moved to Burlington in April 1983 and quickly found out that not all Christian schools are created equal. Our oldest daughter had started kindergarten at an excellent school in Charleston. When we got to Burlington, we tried two small private schools and found a lot lacking in both. As a result, we began one of those, "Who me home school? You’ve got to be kidding!" homeschools. Mandy was beginning the third grade. We have sort of grown up with homeschooling in Kansas.
We have been involved and/or helped start three support groups. The first in Emporia, the second in Franklin County, and the present one in Coffey County known as FAITH (Free And Independent Teaching Homes). As the oldest kids on the block, we gravitated to the leadership position, but Pam has sought to pass around the mantle to the rest of the families. Being a small group and spread across the county, FAITH is not overly dynamic, but we all need to try harder.
Our girls are Mandy (21) who is a senior majoring in piano and voice at Pensacola Christian College. Lindsey (18) graduated in 1997 and is currently working for the Coffey County Library system and teaching piano lessons. She plans on attending a school in Wisconsin in the fall of 2000 and then Bob Jones University. Danielle (17) graduated last spring and is currently lifeguarding at the local pool. She will continue somewhere with something sometime. Elise (12) is my connection with reality and keeps me young. All of the girls are doing very well.
We have always used A Beka material and tried to run a so-called structured school. We have also used the A Beka video program, and at times, usually in the senior year to get the diploma, used the correspondence program.
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