Trent Blankenship, Wyoming’s superintendent of public instruction, stepped down from his post Aug. 1, to take a $130,000-a-year position as superintendent of Alaska’s North Slope Borough school district, the northernmost school system in the country. The 10-school district has about 1,700 students, the majority of them Inupiaq Eskimos.
In interviews with the local media, the 46-year-old Republican said he was leaving his job to spend more time with his family and he was tired of political battles with Gov. Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat. Mr. Blankenship was elected in 2002 for a term that will expire at the end of 2006.
State Republicans plan to forward a list of three possible replacements to the governor, who must make a choice from that list by Aug. 18.
