The Newport Plain Talk

NEWPORT-As the clock winds down on Larry Blazer's twenty-year tenure as Cocke County Director of Schools, he's having more time to reflect over a career as an educator that began in 1973.

"When I graduated from Parrottsville High School in 1968," Blazer said Thursday, "I entered ETSU with every intention of becoming a vocational agriculture teacher. I'd had Herb Helton as a teacher at Parrottsville and he really inspired me."

After entering the Johnson City university, Blazer, like many young collegians, changed his mind and shifted his focus to a double major in health and physical education, plus an endorsement in biology.

He graduated from ETSU on May 31, 1972, but his work as a teacher had to be postponed while he fulfilled his military duty. "I left for basic training with the National Guard on June 6 and didn't return until October. School had already started for the year and there were no openings."

Then Cocke County Schools Superintendent Beth Freeman encouraged Blazer to return to school and get his elementary education certification. "ETSU operated on the quarter system back them," Blazer said, "and I finished that work during the winter."

Armed with his degree and additional certifications, Blazer was hired the next year and entered his first classroom as a teacher at Centerview Elementary School. "David Bible started his first year as principal at the same time," Blazer laughed, "and we learned together. Our philosophies are a lot alike."

Blazer taught sixth, seventh, and eighth grade math, science, and physical education at Centerview, staying there until the fall of 1977, when the sudden death of Smoky Mountain Elementary School principal Gary Gregory led to Blazer being named his replacement.

"At the time," Blazer reflected, "I told Beth (Freeman) I wasn't interested. I was so young and while I had thought I'd like to be a principal some day, I would have liked to have had a little more teaching experience."

"Finally I told her 'Let me think about it' and later accepted the job," he said.

In 1977, Smoky Mountain's principal worked as a "teaching principal." I taught the seventh and eighth grade classes - everything - all subjects. There were 36 kids and no secretary."

"I made a lot of mistakes," Blazer admitted, "but with the help of the wonderful staff I eventually earned the community's support and developed into a pretty decent principal." Blazer named such fellow Smoky Mountain educators as Emma Dean Carver and Janie Moore as among those who helped him.

"Many of the people I worked with and who helped me so much there are now gone," Blazer continued, recalling friendships with the late Doris Jean Clark, Jesse Denton, Jettie Baxter, and Delsie Mae Carver.

"That's where I met Phyllis (Clark)," he smiled, the teacher whom he later married.

After serving at Smoky Mountain for eight years, Blazer was sent to Parrottsville Elementary to replace Steve Thompson. "That was in the fall of 1985 and I worked there for three years," Blazer said.

"Then Charlie Seehorn decided not to seek re-election as Superintendent of Schools," Blazer said. "People started coming to me and encouraging me to run."

"I thought long and hard about it," he admitted. "Again I'd thought that some day I'd like to be superintendent, but I never thought the opportunity would come that soon."

Blazer pointed out that a career as superintendent normally spans "eight to ten years. I really thought I would try for that later on."

Little did he know that his work as the leader of Cocke County's schools would last two decades. He currently is the longest serving director of schools in Upper East Tennessee.

Blazer's previous political campaigning experience had been limited to running for student council while in high school, but he admits to loving the process.

"I truly enjoyed the campaign," he said. "I lost a lot of weight during those weeks. I adopted the strategy that I'd outwork my opponent."

"I mapped out a plan. I'd come home from school and then start door-to-door, knocking on doors and talking to people. When it would get dark, I'd go home and get on the phone, calling people. When it got too late to telephone anyone else, I'd sit down and write letters, asking people for their support. I ran hard until the polls closed."

Once elected and sworn into office, Blazer quickly realized there were many things he didn't know about the job.

"I'd been around Charlie (Seehorn) a lot and attended board meetings forever. I was good friends with Wilbur West, Jesse Denton, George Ray Nease, Steve Thompson, and Bobby Smith (all of whom already worked in the school system's Central Office), but there was so much I didn't know," he said.

According to Blazer, learning the in's and out's of the school system's budget was "a little scary, but not as much trouble as I thought it would be."

Instead, it was "just knowing the procedures, policies, and laws" that presented the biggest challenge. "You're dealing with local, state, and federal laws," said Blazer, "and they're changing all the time. I'd take the books home with me at night and study for hours. The Special Education laws worried me the most."

"Just the amount of things you have to keep up with and know about just blows my mind," Blazer continued. "Being a principal meant I had to know a lot, but superintendent? Golly!"

When he entered office in 1988, records show that he oversaw a total of 444 employees, ranging from teachers and principals to maintenance, transportation, secretaries, aides, teaching assistants, and bus drivers. When he leaves office next week, he will relinquish the responsibility for 678 men and women now employed by the system.

When Blazer first came to office, he "had a lot of things in my mind" that he wanted to accomplish. "I really wanted planning time for teachers," he recalled. "Of course, I wanted salary increases and better benefits for the teachers. Insurance for the non-certified personnel was a big thing."

Blazer also pushed for additional and expanded programs, such as art, music, and physical education classes.

"We adopted a technology plan. We were just moving into the tech age then," he added.

"I asked Charlie Seehorn for advice and he urged me to have the system's books put on computer. Everything had been done by hand up to that time," said Blazer, "and now we've moved to digital."

Blazer quickly credited longtime office personnel Judy Butler and Barbara Davis with adapting to the ever-changing systems. "All of the staff here are wonderful," he said. "I've been blessed with good people around me."

When asked to name his proudest moment as superintendent/director, Blazer immediately said, "When we won the big lawsuit," in reference to the landmark case Tennessee Small Schools Systems vs. McWherter, filed in 1987,

"We joined the suit in 1988," Blazer said. "I asked the local board of education to join in, and the CLB helped with money because they knew what it would do if we won."

The lawsuit sought for state monies to be divided in a way to "even the playing ground" between the large and small systems.

Seventy-seven school systems eventually joined in the lawsuit. "Louis Donelson was our attorney and we won the original suit twice," Blazer explained. "We took it back for teacher equity and won again."

During the course of the lawsuit, Blazer had to travel to Nashville to give a deposition. "That lasted five hours," he said.

Blazer credits the increase in state dollars Cocke County has received as a result of the successful lawsuit with making it possible for all local schools to be accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (SACSS). "It would have been extremely hard, if not impossible, for us to do that without the money," Blazer said.

"We've also been able to add more programs, teachers, staff members, textbooks, and supplies," he added. "We have more librarians, counselors, and teachers for art, music, and physical education because of that victory."

Blazer is also happy about what he terms the "explosion of technology programs" now in place.

Another high point of his career was the successful completion of a $20 million dollar building program in 2003.

"We started discussions about that in 1993," he said, "and first approached the CLB for funds in 1995. The actual building didn't commence until 1999."

"I still don't know how I got through that," he laughed. Blazer was a "hands-on" member of the building program, working daily with the architects and builders. "I just wanted to make sure we got as much for our money as we possibly could," he said. His dedication to the program earned him the respect of architects who said they had never seen a director of schools so heavily involved before.

By 2003, every Cocke County school, except Northwest Elementary, had been expanded, plus the construction a new Central Office and bus garage, the purchase of a former veterinary clinic for conversion into the Cocke County Alternative School, the purchase of another building to become the Adult High School, and the purchase of a portable building to house the technology center.

"Northwest wasn't completely left out. They had enough classrooms already, but they did receive renovations," he said.

"And now we need more," Blazer added, in reference to the steady growth in the numbers of students enrolling in Cocke County schools.

Did he expect to stay 30 years?

"Not really. It just worked out that way," he answered. And he's not leaving the school system completely. He begins work in July in a part-time position to help newly-named Cocke County Director of Schools Manney Moore.

"I also expect to catch up on my fishing and spend time with my family. They have stood behind me all these years and it's been stressful for them," he said. "I appreciate and love them."

A reception this Sunday afternoon at First United Methodist Church's Nurture Center will honor Blazer.

Subscribe to The Newport Plain Talk by clicking SUBSCRIBE. Sign up for Breaking News emails from The Newport Plain Talk by clicking EMAIL ALERTS and inputting your email address next to "Add Me" near the top right corner.