Dataseam has announced Knott County Schools, Hindman, Kentucky, voted at their April 2025 Board of Education meeting to rejoin the statewide Dataseam partnership.
“We are excited to have Knott County Schools back in the program and continue to provide advanced opportunity for their students,” said Brian Gupton, Dataseam CEO. “Workforce development demands increase across Kentucky. Partnerships with schools like this help ensure students are best prepared to meet them.”
Dataseam, an education and workforce development organization, provides technology and workforce training through industry-standard certification and US Department of Labor-approved Registered Apprenticeships in Information Technology. Participating public schools, the largest employer in 100 of 120 Kentucky counties, earn high-end Apple workstations addressing curriculum needs reflective of a knowledge-based workforce. These computers comprise the statewide DataseamGrid supporting the Commonwealth’s research and commercialization efforts at the University of Louisville’s Brown Cancer Center.
Dataseam currently serves 59 Kentucky districts statewide accounting for 245,576 of the state’s approximately 634,000 K-12 public school students.
Knott County Superintendent Greg Conn commented, “The Dataseam program has provided extensive opportunities to our district over the years. Through this partnership, we’ve been able to bring approximately $546,000 worth of instructional technology resources into our classrooms, enhancing our staff capabilities and giving students a diverse technology experience that aligns with what they’ll encounter in college and the workforce. Most recently, we upskilled a member of our technology team in an effort that generated a benefit nearly equivalent to our district’s annual technology budget. These new Dataseam computers will not only serve Knott County students but also contribute to the broader, statewide effort in cancer research.”
Located in Appalachia, the Eastern Kentucky school district serves just over 2,000 students grades K-12 in a county of 13,659. Despite the challenges of a 7.9% county unemployment rate above the state rate of 5.1%, recent data shows Knott County Schools successfully send 57.4 of graduates to university, with 49.4% earning college credit prior to graduation and another 18.7% earning industry certification.
Dataseam is funded through the Kentucky General Assembly, the US Department of Labor, and the Appalachian Regional Commission. The organization has a nearly 20-year record of providing opportunity to rural and underrepresented populations in its mission of advancing education and workforce initiatives supporting Kentucky-based innovation and commercialization.
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