The Ashland Independent School District is a school district based in Boyd County, Kentucky. The district serves the area within the city limits of Ashland, save for a very small part in the Fairview independent district and a tiny area in the Boyd County district. [1]
Regular meetings of the board are held on the fourth Monday of each month.
Members [2]
Ex officio members without vote
The current superintendent of the Ashland Independent School District is D. Sean Howard, who replaced Stephen E. Gilmore on July 1, 2016. Howard most recently served as superintendent of the Glasgow Independent School District in western Kentucky and was a former assistant superintendent and principal in the neighboring Russell Independent School District.
From 1968 to 1970, James B. Graham served as superintendent. He left to become superintendent of the Bowling Green Independent School District. He went on to serve as state superintendent for public instruction from 1976 to 1980 and as the state Auditor for Public Accounts from 1980 to 1984. [3]
John Grant Crabbe was born in Mt. Sterling, Ohio, on Nov. 29, 1865. He earned A.B. and A.M. degrees from Ohio Wesleyan University. He received honorary degrees from: Ohio University, Berea College, Miami University and the University of Kentucky.
Dr. Crabbe came to Kentucky as superintendent of the schools in Ashland. His leadership in an early construction program led to the 1895 naming of John Grant Crabbe School located on school property in Ashland's Central Park.
He was elected state superintendent of Kentucky public instruction in 1907. As state superintendent, he served on the board of regents at Eastern Kentucky State Normal School No. 1 in Richmond KY. He became Eastern's president in 1910.
Dr. Crabbe was named a member of the National Council of Education, and in 1911, became president of the Department of Normal Schools of the Southern Education Association. The next year (1912) he became president of the National Education Association. In 1916, he was state director of the N.E.A.
Dr. Crabbe resigned from Eastern on Sept. 1, 1916, to become president of Colorado State Teachers College.
In 1958, the Ashland Board of Education announced the 1895 building would be razed, the planned construction of a new elementary school in the same location, and “to continue to honor Dr. Crabbe’s achievements by keeping the name of the structure it will be replacing”.
John Grant Crabbe is the name of the Eastern Kentucky University Library in Richmond and of the Crabbe Elementary School in Ashland which stand as tributes to this innovator and leader in Kentucky public education.
John Franklin Hager was born in Floyd County, Kentucky in 1853. Left an orphan at an early age, Hager was preeminently a self-educated man. At the age of nine he ran away from the foster home in Floyd County and worked the “push boats” on the Big Sandy River. He was an accomplished banjo player and was a collector of river songs, which often referenced the Pike to Catlettsburg route.
With no formal education, he later became a legal apprentice in Catlettsburg, KY. He was admitted to the Kentucky Bar Association in 1873. Shortly after admission to the Bar Association, he began his law practice in Ashland, KY. He served as president of the Boyd County Bar Association and the Kentucky Bar Association. He was an advocate for civic betterment and activities for the improvement of human conditions, regardless of race or creed.
Jean Bell Thomas, nicknamed the "Traipsin' Woman", served has Judge Hager's clerk. She often traveled to courts in the mountains of eastern Kentucky by jolt-wagon and shared many of Judge Hager's collected river songs.
Prior to President Harding's August 1923 death, Judge Hager was being considered for the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy. (Evening newspaper December 21, 1933)
The Poage family established the settlement, Poage's Landing, that became the City of Ashland.
Ashland Middle School serves grades 6 to 8.
Blazer High serves grades 9 to 12.
Paul Garrett Blazer was born in New Boston, Illinois in 1890. He earned an A.A. degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1915.
Blazer came to Ashland in 1924 as general manager of the nearby Leach refinery, which had been purchased by Swiss Oil of Lexington, KY. In 1936, the Ashland refinery management group formed the Ashland Oil & Refining Company to run the former Swiss Oil operations. Blazer was named president of the new company.
Blazer would become a senior advisor on petroleum matters in US Department of Interior from 1933 to 1957, a leader in the development of the modernization of the Ohio River transportation network, and a recognized statewide supporter of education. He was instrumental in the opening of the Ashland Junior College and its later affiliation with the University of Kentucky, a visible supporter for ending racial segregation in Kentucky education, and a facilitator of the expansion of Kentucky Educational Television beyond Jefferson County (Louisville). The Kentucky Press Association named Blazer the Kentuckian of the Year for 1954.
In 1958, the Ashland Board of Education announced the naming of Paul G. Blazer High School.
Ashland is a home rule-class city in Boyd County, Kentucky, United States. The largest city in Boyd County, Ashland is located upon a southern bank of the Ohio River at the state border with Ohio and near West Virginia. The population was 21,625 at the 2020 census. Ashland is a principal city of the Huntington–Ashland metropolitan area, referred to locally as the "Tri-State area", home to 376,155 residents as of 2020. Ashland serves as an important economic and medical center for northeastern Kentucky.
Catlettsburg is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Boyd County, Kentucky, United States. The city population was 1,780 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Huntington–Ashland metropolitan area.
Bellefonte is a home rule-class city in Greenup County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 888 at the 2010 census. Bellefonte is a part of the Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). In 2013, according to new boundary definitions, the MSA had a population of 361,580.
Russell is a home rule-class city on the south bank of the Ohio River in Greenup County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 3,380 as of the 2010 census, down from 3,645 in 2000. Russell is a suburb of Ashland and part of the Huntington-Ashland-Ironton metropolitan area. It has close economic affiliations with its neighbors, Ashland and Flatwoods in Kentucky and Ironton, Ohio.
Ashland Inc. is an American chemical company headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware. The company traces its roots back to the city of Ashland, Kentucky, where it was headquartered from 1924 to 1999. The company has five wholly owned divisions, which include Chemical Intermediates and Solvents, Composites, Industrial Specialties, Personal and Home Care, & Pharmaceuticals, Food and Beverage, and Agriculture. Until 2017, the company was the primary manufacturer of Valvoline.
Cannonsburg is a census-designated place (CDP) in Boyd County, Kentucky, United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 856. Cannonsburg is located 8 miles (13 km) southwest of the city of Ashland, a major urban center in northeastern Kentucky. Most of Cannonsburg shares its ZIP code with Ashland; however, parts are within the Catlettsburg ZIP code. The Cannonsburg post office closed in 1929. Cannonsburg is a part of the Huntington-Ashland Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). As of the 2010 census, the MSA had a population of 287,702. New definitions from February 28, 2013, placed the population at 363,000.
Ben Mitchell Williamson was a Democratic U.S. Senator from Kentucky.
George Brown Martin, a Democrat, served as a member of the United States Senate from Kentucky.
Ashland Community and Technical College (ACTC) is a public community college in Ashland, Kentucky. It is an open-admissions college and part of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System. It was founded in 1938 to allow students the opportunity to obtain associate degrees, certificates and diplomas as well as provide vocational and technical training. The courses offered range from Cosmetology, Culinary Arts, business, education, health-related courses, information technology and a range of industrial technology degrees among others.
Boyd County Public Schools is a school district based in Boyd County, Kentucky. The district serves the area within Catlettsburg and the rest of Boyd County, excluding the city of Ashland and the census-designated place of Westwood, each of which has its own school district.
Kentucky Route 168 is a two-lane route extending from US 23 in Westwood to the US 23/60 multiplex in Catlettsburg. Its southern end point in Catlettsburg was originally at the underpass where Walnut and Louisa Streets once split. In 1971, the former ending was truncated to its present location due to the re-routing of U.S. 23 around downtown Catlettsburg. Once inside the city of Ashland, it traverses three different surface streets known as Valley View Drive, Blackburn Avenue and South Belmont Street via a series of turns, mainly within the South Ashland residential district. In Ashland, it crosses 13th Street at an intersection locally known as Community.
Laban Theodore Moore was a U.S. Representative from Kentucky.
Boyd County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, its population was 48,261. The county seat is Catlettsburg, and its largest city is Ashland. The county was formed in 1860. The county spans 160 square miles (410 km2), and is found at the northeastern edge of the state, near the Ohio River and Big Sandy River and situated in mountainous Appalachia. Boyd County is in the Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH metropolitan statistical area.
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky is the Federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises approximately the Eastern half of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati, Ohio maintains appellate jurisdiction for the district.
Ashland is a city in north-eastern Kentucky. Prior to European colonization, it was home to the Adena culture, Hopewell culture, Armstrong culture, and Fort Ancient Native American groups, and later the Shawnee. European settlement by Scots-Irish Americans began in 1783. In 1800, iron deposits were discovered in Ashland, which would lead to an influx of industry over the next two centuries. In the 21st century, city growth has spilled into neighboring areas, technically outside of city-limits, and the industrial economy has shrunk alongside expansions in the services sector.
Paul Garrett Blazer was president and CEO of Ashland Oil and Refining Company located in Ashland, Kentucky.
Edgar Browne Hager (1868–1935) was a criminal defense lawyer known for his oratory skills, mayor of Ashland, Kentucky, and president of the Kentucky Municipal League.
Catlettsburg is a former Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad station located in downtown Catlettsburg, Kentucky. Opened between 1897 and 1890 to replace an older wooden station, it served trains until 1958. Amtrak trains began stopping at Tri-State Station some 1.5 miles (2.4 km) to the north in 1975; it was renamed Catlettsburg around 1988. Amtrak service was moved from Catlettsburg to Ashland in 1998. The C&O station was refurbished from 2004 to 2006 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.
Mary Creegan Roark was the first female President and second President of Eastern Kentucky State Normal School, later Eastern Kentucky University, from April 1909 until March 1910. Roark held this position following the death of her husband, Ruric Nevel Roark, in 1909. Roark led the university at a time when women did not have the right to vote in state or federal elections. Roark was involved in the Suffrage Movement for Equal Rights and was elected Secretary of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association in 1898. Her stances included better teacher training and salaries, she also helped gain the right to vote in school elections. Roark died in Baltimore, Maryland on February 1, 1922 and is buried in Richmond, Kentucky at the Richmond Cemetery.
