KCS celebrates academic growth, recognizes reward schools
By Ken Lay
In an event that was meant to both inform and celebrate, Knox County Schools honored 18 reward schools at an event at Lonsdale Elementary School last Wednesday.
The annual meeting was held at Lonsdale because that school was removed from the state’s critical list.
The event celebrated four consecutive years of growth for the district, which was designated as a district in need of improvement by the state just four years ago. That designation meant that Knox County Schools ranked in the bottom 5% of districts in Tennessee.
“Four years ago, Knox County Schools was a district in need of improvement,” KCS Superintendent Dr. Jon Rysewyk said. “That was unacceptable.”
“For the next two years, we focused on our four core priorities. We raised expectations, and we made progress.”
The work paid off as the district received a rating of satisfactory. Rysewyk was pleased, but knew the district wasn’t quite where it wanted to be.
“We made improvements, and we reached a rating of satisfactory, but we weren’t satisfied with just being satisfactory,” he said.
KCS now has a top rating from the Tennessee Department of Education, but Rysewyk, while happy with the designation, said that the district wouldn’t become complacent.
“We’re still looking for ways to improve,” he said. “It truly takes a village. “
He also noted that the improvements would not have been possible without the teachers, principals, families and the Knox County Community.
“This is a result of the hard work of our teachers and our principals and the hard work of our students,” Rysewyk said. “To our families, you are your child’s first teacher, and we don’t want to replace that. We appreciate you trusting us with your children.”
The district’s annual report was released at the event and made available to those in attendance and Rysewyk vowed to remain transparent about the school system’s efforts to improve.
“This doesn’t happen in every community in the state,” he said. “We’re here today to celebrate the success of our schools, but we’re also here to tell you what we’re doing.
“But this doesn’t happen in every community. This is not required by the state.”
The 18 schools to be recognized as reward schools for the 2024-25 academic year included: A.L. Lotts Elementary; Amherst Elementary; Blue Grass Elementary; Brickey-McCloud Elementary; Career Magnet Academy; Christenberry Elementary; Farragut Intermediate; Farragut Middle; Farragut High; Gap Creek Elementary; Gibbs Elementary; Hardin Valley Elementary; L&N STEM Academy; Mt. Olive Elementary; Northshore Elementary; Pleasant Ridge Elementary; Sequoyah Elementary and Shannondale Elementary.
