Fayette County Schools Superintendent Manny Caulk is being remembered for his upbeat style of leadership in the state’s second largest school district. The 49 year old Caulk died unexpectedly Friday. Fayette School Board Chair Stephanie Squires sent a message to school families just before midnight Friday. Caulk had been on medical leave for several days.
Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton offered her thoughts in a statement. It reads, “We will always remember Manny Caulk for his devotion to our children. He put their safety first, working as part of our stakeholder group to combat the pandemic. Our thoughts are with his family at this difficult time.”
Wayne Young, a long-time executive with the Kentucky Association of School Administrators said he and Caulk both had been trained as attorneys and bonded quickly, which Young added was easy to do with Caulk. He said an “it can be done” attitude is always beneficial in leading a school system. “But in his case, you have a district that has tremendous resources and tremendous potential and yet there were still some kind of glaring issues that needed to be addressed and he was never deterred by that. I don’t know if the word is indomitable. It’s far more than simply positive attitude. He was willing to take it on and just had this sense that he transferred to other people that no problem was unsolvable,” said Young.
In a state with large urban school systems in cities like Lexington and Louisville but mostly rural districts, Young says Caulk was always approachable, down to earth and “one of the crowd” of administrators. And he liked to think of the Commonwealth as his true home. “He hadn’t lived here, hadn’t grown up here but his grandfather had been a coal miner in eastern Kentucky. I heard him more than once tell a very touching story about that, about how that was his connection and that he always wanted to come here because he considered this home for his family and so he had a special feeling about doing what he was doing,” explained Young.
Caulk battled through serious health issues. Not soon after he took the job as head of the large school district, he underwent an 18 hour surgery to remove a malignant mass from his nasal cavity. Just last week, it was announced Marlene Helm would be serving as acting schools superintendent. Helm, who retired after years in administration in Fayette schools, has served as acting superintendent on more than one occasion previously.
