CHEYENNE - Where is State Superintendent Trent Blankenship?

The short answer: Though he's not scheduled to resign until Aug. 1, and as of Wednesday hadn't turned in a resignation letter to Gov. Dave Freudenthal, he's already long gone.

Since July 1, when Blankenship's contract as superintendent of the North Slope Borough School District in northern Alaska began, he has only worked nine of 18 work days, according to his schedule, obtained from the Department of Education.

What's more, Blankenship was not scheduled to work Thursday or Friday, meaning he would be gone more than half of July, the last month for which he's being paid by the state. And the last day his schedule showed that he worked, July 21, he did not attend a special meeting of the University of Wyoming Board of Trustees, a board on which he sits.

Blankenship announced June 17 that he would step down two-thirds of the way through his term to become superintendent of the Alaska district, a job that pays more. The announcement followed escalating disputes with Freudenthal and the state School Facilities Commission over school construction policies and other matters.

After being questioned about working both for the state and for North Slope Borough in July, Blankenship's office issued a statement saying he would "ensure that his job duties do not conflict with his current responsibilities as state superintendent." Blankenship has also said that he would not accept pay from the district for July.

Attorney General Pat Crank said after Blankenship's resignation announcement that he could find no law or rule that would prevent Blankenship from holding a second job. On Wednesday, he said essentially the same thing: Nothing prevented Blankenship from taking off large blocks of time, either.

"I think the statewide elected officials are exempted from the personnel rules that set the amounts of vacation days and sick days," Crank said.

"I just don't think the Legislature, certainly the drafters of the constitution, ever contemplated that a statewide elected official would have two jobs."

Wyoming Board of Education member Bill Anthony, of Casper, agreed that seemed to be the case. "It isn't something that I would have done, personally," Anthony said. "But I hope him success in his new position."

Blankenship and his chief of staff, Lisa Skiles Parady, did not respond to phone messages seeking comment Tuesday and Wednesday. Parady, whom Blankenship last week put in charge of the department until a successor is named by Freudenthal, was vacationing this week.

Blankenship's July schedule showed that he was on leave July 1-8 and planned to be on leave July 22-31. That's 11 out of the 20 work days this month, not counting the Fourth of July.

Moreover, Blankenship missed both the State Building Commission meeting in Cheyenne on July 19 and the special UW Trustees meeting in Laramie on July 21 - both days his schedule shows he worked. As a statewide elected official, Blankenship is one of five commission members, and he's an ex-officio member of the Board of Trustees.

His schedule also made note of a Teton Institute early literacy conference in Jackson July 17-20. But he didn't register for the conference and apparently didn't show up, according to conference manager Tina Watkins, with Sopris West Educational Services in Boulder, Colo.

Blankenship did speak about school finance litigation at the Education Commission of the States National Forum in Denver on July 13, and as a commission member would have attended a business meeting later that day, according to commission spokeswoman Cathy Walker.

Forum events were scheduled from July 12-15, according to Walker and Blankenship's schedule.

Department attorney Sylvia Hackl and Department spokesman Tim Lockwood both said they had seen Blankenship this month, but they couldn't recall when.