It was Thanksgiving week and, like elsewhere in the nation, schools in the small Appalachian town of Pikeville in eastern Kentucky were closed for the holiday. But Brandon Blackburn, the principal of Pikeville High School, accepted a phone call requesting a tour that week to an out-of-state family considering moving to the town, which also is home to five other public high schools.
It helped that Blackburn knew the voice on the other end of the phone. The call came from Latasha Friend, a former college classmate of Blackburn’s wife, fellow community member, and employee at SOAR (Shaping Our Appalachian Region Inc.), a nonprofit promoting growth in Appalachia and eastern Kentucky, a region that has lost many residents in recent years following the decline of the coal industry.
It’s not uncommon for families preparing for a move to learn more about local communities and their school options. And Blackburn said he’s eager to showcase his small but high-performing school, which boasts a 100-plus-year history and currently serves approximately 620 students.
“At first glance, you see a small town, and then, of course, you see a small school building. So immediately, especially if you’re coming from a larger state, you get questions like, ‘Hey, my student was involved in A, B, C, and D. Do you have these things?’ And you know what? Many times we can say yes, because our family and staff wear a lot of different hats,” he said. “We feel that this is a really good opportunity for us to soften those nerves and alleviate some of those misconceptions or whatever may be in someone’s mind.”
Blackburn’s willingness to embrace the role of ambassador makes sense; after all, who better than the principal can tout a school’s attributes? Yet, it’s not often among the many tasks that principals typically juggle, like poring over budgets, tweaking school calendars, addressing the student body, reviewing new curricula—all of which require laser-focused attention to what’s happening within the walls of a school building. Nor is it easy for principals to move beyond their day-to-day duties and the unexpected proverbial “fires” that require their attention: security threats, inclement weather, fast-spreading viruses.
But administrators who make the time to embrace opportunities to connect with community members—from prospective families to local businesses to local economic-development organizations—report seeing the payoff return to their own school communities. Being situated within a small community can make it both easier, and more critical, for administrators to play the role of school ambassadors.
Seeking a symbiotic relationship with the business community
One such principal is Sonya Rinehart. She presides over John A. Holmes High School, which serves about 550 racially and economically diverse students in Edenton, N.C., an agrarian community in the state’s northeast region.
“I am pretty well ingrained in our small community and I have always seen the need to partner with our chamber office, with Destination Downtown Edenton, who are working to bring businesses to the area,” said Rinehart. “Businesses are only going to come where you have schools that are preparing students to do well upon graduation.”
Rinehart wasted no time partnering with Destination Downtown Edenton, whose executive director, Ches Chesson, was one of her former students. “I quickly reached out to him when he returned to the area to talk about ways that we could partner together in projects and initiatives and even bring new courses to our school community,” Rinehart said. “He understands the vital relationship that schools play in economic development.”
That relationship starts with current students, Rinehart explains. Through the school’s partnership with Destination Downtown, one of its art students designed and painted empty business storefronts, helping to improve the general look of the downtown area, and has since received a job through a local design company.
In small communities like Edenton with limited resources, developing partnerships with local industry to create student opportunities sometimes requires ingenuity. For instance, a meeting between Rinehart and Edenton’s town manager turned to how they might take advantage of the strong aviation presence in the area; Edenton has the 6th busiest airport in North Carolina, according to Rinehart. That led to a connection with the North Carolina transportation department. In turn, the school partnered with the department, Elizabeth City State University, and a local pilot to host a free weeklong summer aviation camp this June to expose students to potential careers in the industry.
“Every child got to fly these aviation drones, which was amazing,” Rinehart said. Students also had a chance to fly over their community with the pilot.
During the camp, students also took a field trip to Elizabeth City State University to see the drones and aeronautics available to aviation students at the college level. Since then, some of the students who attended the camp have begun interning at Edenton’s Northeastern Regional Airport.
Administrators as the face of their school community
Rinehart doesn’t believe in waiting for prospective community partners, whether they’re economic-development professionals or industry experts, to come to her. And she advises other administrators to act similarly. “Get involved, let the people know who you are, and get invited to their meetings,” she said. “Tell the story of your school.”
Even when administrators aren’t consciously telling their school’s story, they are representing their school to the broader community whenever they leave campus, especially in small towns where everyone seems to know everyone.
“You think about what you’re wearing in the grocery store, what you’re talking about in a booth in a restaurant,” said Beth Antoine, an assistant principal at Auburn High School and the 2025 Alabama Assistant Principal of the Year.
Constantly being “on” can be overwhelming at times, acknowledges Pikeville High Principal Blackburn. But he finds that being readily accessible is actually advantageous.
“I think what makes the position more manageable is to build those relationships with families throughout your community, so you can understand how you can serve them best,” he said.
Blackburn also said that he’s found it empowering to lean on those on his team. “I do nothing alone. I’ve got a great assistant principal, a school counselor, a very supportive superintendent, and we all work very closely together,” he said. “Building those relationships internally allows you to manage the relationships externally.”
Clarification, Oct. 9, 2025: This article has been updated to reflect that Sonya Rinehart stopped to briefly speak with a former student working for a local business.
