My name is Josh Barnett. I grew up on the Westside of Evansville where I attended Cynthia Heights, Helfrich Park and Reitz High School. After high school, I attended Indiana University, earning a degree in Secondary Education.
After graduating, I moved to Indianapolis where I taught Social Studies and coached basketball for 10 years at Lincoln Middle School in Pike Township. While in Indianapolis, I married my wife Amy (another Reitz graduate), and we had our first two kids, Isabella and Knox.
Shortly after Knox turned one, we decided to move back to Evansville. A big part of that decision was so our kids could have the same great experience we had growing up in the EVSC. Since then, we’ve added a second son, Duke. All three of our children are enrolled in EVSC schools. They currently attend Cynthia Heights, Helfrich Park, and Reitz High School and have all really enjoyed their experiences thus far.
Upon moving back to Evansville, I accepted another teaching position at Washington Middle School. At Washington, I taught 6th-8th grade Social Studies for 7 years. It was during this time that my company, 19nine, started to grow in popularity and to the point where it became too big to be a part time gig anymore.
After the 2019-2020 school year, I resigned to run my business full time. It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up, but it was also very important to me to remain as close to the public education world as possible.
About Me:
I am running for school board because I've always deeply cared about public education. Education has deep roots in my family. My grandpa was a teacher and a coach, my mom was an elementary school teacher at Tekoppel her whole professional life and my dad was a social worker at Hillcrest. Working with and for kids is in my blood and I’m hopeful I can continue to do that through the school board.
That's why I went into the teaching profession in the first place and taught for 17 years. I always worked in challenging schools (Title 1) because I felt like I could have more impact there. Since starting my own business, I've remained as close to the EVSC as I could through donating to Hangers and awarding Lincoln with a donation as a recipient of our Local Pioneers award.
Donating is the easy part. Time is much harder. I’ve recently sold 19nine and now have the opportunity to spend more time giving back to the community and the EVSC.
I am a product of the EVSC. All of my kids are currently in the EVSC. I have a great amount of friends that are teachers in the EVSC. I’m running for school board for them.
I look forward to working with teachers to address their questions and concerns throughout the year. I want to continue to help make the EVSC a great place to work and be an awesome experience for our current and future students.
Why I’m running for school board:
Sign up to help:
If you are interested in helping the Barnett For School Board campaign in any way please email us. Please let us know if you’d like to volunteer, put up a yard sign or help in any other way. We truly appreciate it!