White is ‘coming home’ to FPS
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In some ways, new Farragut Primary School principal Lynn White is coming “home.”
The new administrator — appointed earlier this summer to fill the role former principal Gina Byrd had held for nine years — is a Farragut High School Class of 1989 graduate with long-standing ties to the community.
White grew up in Cedar Bluff and attended elementary and middle school there before going on to FHS, where her mother, Doris Gordon, then worked as a business teacher.
After high school, she followed in her mother’s footsteps, joining Knox County Schools after graduating from Tennessee Tech in 1993. Her first job was at Chilhowee Intermediate, and she taught at Karns and Hardin Valley elementary schools in-between maternity leaves for her children: Ally, Andy and Matthew.
Administratively, White was an assistant principal at Gibbs and Blue Grass elementary schools for two years each, then was named principal at Sterchi Elementary, where she worked for the last five years.
“I loved my students and was sad to leave them,” she said, noting a “domino effect” beginning with a retirement from Cedar Bluff moving the previous A.L. Lotts principal to CBES, then Byrd being appointed to Lotts and White moving to FPS.
One of her Sterchi students who has since moved to the Farragut area came to the school Monday, July 26, for “Pop By to Say Hi,” where White, new assistant principal Dr. Anne Riley and already-serving assistant principal Jaleece Strong-Clark greeted incoming parents and students with smiles and popsicles.
“That was really a nice surprise to see my former student,” White said, adding she is “excited to be here, and the support from the parents and teachers here has been wonderful.
“Parents, especially, have been so welcoming and kind. I’m excited to meet with them as I get to know their kids.”
White said she also is excited about this year’s school theme, “Together We Thrive.”
Her No. 1 goal is to “keep our staff, parents and students as safe as possible as we all try to get used to a ‘new normal’ or as normal as things can be.
“I am a teacher at heart ... so I plan to do a lot of reading to our students — that is something I really enjoy,” White added.
The new principal and her husband, David White, live in the Cedar Bluff/Hardin Valley area.
