A Force in the Capital for Good

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When you run a remote school system with high poverty in one of the nation’s poorest states, there can be distinct advantages to political connections.

Frank “Bucky” Blackwell, superintendent of the Wyoming County Schools in southern West Virginia for nearly 34 years, has made those relationships work for his schools and students. During each legislative season, he has traveled to Charleston to advocate on financial and legislative matters. He’s also maintained a telephone relationship with legislators.

Blackwell’s longevity aids in the effort to secure funding and other support for the 4,250-student system. He has been able to ply his good working relationships with state legislators ever since he spent three terms in the West Virginia House of Delegates from 1976 to 1982, while working his way up the career ladder in Wyoming County. When Blackwell felt he was getting a run-around in the state capital after requesting support for a badly needed elementary/middle school, he called on state delegate Linda Phillips, a former school counselor, for help. Responded Phillips: “He doesn’t ask a lot, but when he does I know it is important.”

The schools chief chuckles when he hears other superintendents remark, “We don’t want to be ‘Buckyed’ again” — a reference to a prevailing notion among his colleagues who feel their chances of securing competitive grants are greatly reduced if Blackwell is applying.

In 1994, he secured sufficient funding, about $11 million in state money, to build one of two new high schools through a competitive grant.

With an almost 10 percent unemployment rate in the county, due mostly to closure of the region’s coal mines, state operating support has been on a sharp decline — with the district receiving about $1 million less last year. The plunge of enrollment by more than 45 percent over the past 10 years has led to the closure of 14 schools.

To subsidize the needs of Wyoming County’s students, Blackwell, the 2016 state superintendent of the year, turns to his well-placed linkages. “There’s a way to do anything,” he says. “You just have to find the answer. I’ve never been bashful about asking for help.”

He persuaded the state’s National Guard to stage its summer training project at the site of a newly opened high school a few years back. The Guard troops came with their bulldozers to remove earth from part of a mountain so the district could build a football field and an athletic field house. The next summer they returned to help prepare a school baseball diamond.

But it’s not just big-ticket needs that spark Blackwell’s pursuit. On his walks through the schools, the superintendent will peer into classrooms to identify teacher needs, leading him to take action to replace a broken desk or outdated piece of equipment.

Recognizing that about 45 percent of Wyoming County’s students live below the poverty line, Blackwell says he cares about all facets of their lives. This compassion comes across in many ways, according to Deirdre Cline, the assistant superintendent, as whenever Blackwell has to decide whether to close school because of foul weather. “He worries about the meals the children will miss as a result,” she says.

With his retirement looming in June, Blackwell won’t be venturing far from a seat of authority in the community where he was born and raised. Thirty-four years after he gave up his legislative seat to accept the superintendency, Blackwell has been appointed by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin to fill a one-year vacancy in the House of Delegates. Without a doubt, he will remain a potent force for public good.

“Blackwell is a good school man,” Mary Catherine Brooks, editor of the Wyoming County Report, says. “He knows how to get things done for the Wyoming County schools.”