Each year, study councils made up of principals representing nine districts from across Tennessee come together to vote on a principal of the year for the state. The award celebrates principals who have implemented programs resulting in significant school improvements and advocated for the improvement of the education of children.
This year, the council that oversees Hamilton County Schools nominated Karen Hollis, former principal of Ganns Middle Valley Elementary School. There is perhaps no greater honor than the recognition of one’s peers, as they understand the responsibilities and challenges someone in their position faces, and they’re in the best position to gauge success and failure. Knowing this has humbled Hollis, who now works at the central office as director of elementary operations. “It’s an honor to be nominated. It’s more than I expected,” she says.
Hollis could blow her own horn if she wanted to, as Tenn-essee Comprehensive Assess-
ment Program scores at Ganns rose dramatically during her five-year tenure as principal, as did the school’s Tennessee Value-Added Assessment Sys-tem scores. With regard to the latter, Ganns led Hamilton County in math and social studies in 2010; this year, Ganns placed in the top 20 across the state. Hollis attributes the school’s success to its teachers, the parents of its students, and the surrounding community. However, as the leader of the school, she implemented several changes that put the school on the path to success.
“An important part of student achievement is giving teachers the tools they need to teach and the time in which to do it. So we stopped all of the interruptions that were taking place to give our teachers instruction time and concentrated on team building. If your teachers are excited about what they’re doing, that’s going to spill over onto the students,” Hollis says. Hollis also gave her teachers room to plan horizontally as well as vertically. She says this had a huge impact on student achievement. “They had the ability to talk with the grade levels above and below them, and to identify gaps in the standards and the teaching so they could close them. That created an environment in which they could think creatively,” she says.
Hollis can’t remember a time when she didn’t want to become a teacher, and says she’s where she is partly because of the superior instruction she received along the way. From elementary school through each stage of her career, she can identify teachers and mentors who had an impact on the decisions she made, and who stirred up passion for education within her. For example, a bad experience in fourth grade put Hollis behind academically and nearly ruined her enthusiasm for school. When her family moved to Hamilton County the following year, her new teacher brought her up to speed and rekindled her desire to someday become an instructor.
“She nurtured me and got me to where I needed to be. I saw in her a love for teaching, and I knew I wanted to make other kids feel the way she made me feel,” Hollis says.
Hollis wanted to become an elementary school teacher, but was leery of teaching kindergarten because instructors at that time had to develop their own curriculum. However, right before she started student teaching, she took a class in which the instructor sparked her enthusiasm for teaching young ones. Hollis fell in love with kindergartners while student teaching, and went on to teach kindergarten for 13 years at Howard Elementary.
“I liked that they were shorter than me. Not a lot of people are,” Hollis says, laughing.
While at Howard, Hollis participated in a leadership class sponsored by the Public Education Foundation and Hamilton County Schools. The skills she learned proved to be useful when she was promoted to assistant principal at Garber Elementary School and later Hardy Elementary, where she was paired with the woman she says was one of the best mentors she’s had: Principal Natalie Elder. The school saw great gains in its TVAAS scores as the two worked together for six years.
As director of elementary operations for Hamilton County schools, Hollis will be doing the same thing she did at Ganns, only on a broader scope. “The best way to describe my job is I’m a principal of principals. My job is to take care of whatever affects the operations of a school. While that sounds complicated, a lot of it is relational, so I’m going to set aside time to be with people and hear them out. I’m going to go into the schools and talk with the principals and teachers about where they’re going and how I can help them get there,” she says. The Tennessee Department of Education will announce its principal of the year at the annual Tennessee Educational LEADership conference on September 19.
In addition to being an educator, Hollis is a mother of two, a wife of 24 years, and an active member of Silverdale Baptist Church.