To relieve an overcrowding problem in the Knox County School system a new high school is under construction in the western end of Hardin Valley in the west Knoxville area.

A somewhat controversial re-zoning plan was recently approved by the Knox County School Board by a 5-4 vote with the commissioners in the most affected zones voting no.

I remember similar controversies in the past few years when A. L. Lotts Elementary came online and before that a minor rezoning around West High School. In the end after all the dust had settled students quickly adjusted to life in their new schools and parents adjusted too, just not as quickly.

I suspect it will the be same for the new Hardin Valley High School which is scheduled to open in the Fall term of 2008.

Students from Farragut, Karns, Powell, West, and Bearden High Schools will be most affected by the rezoning

Sallee Reynolds has been chosen as the Hardin Valley Principal and she’s already hard at work assembling a staff and getting ready for their inagural year in 2008.

sallee reynolds hardin valley high school principal

Sallee Reynolds, Principal, Hardin Valley High

She seems well qualified: “Reynolds has been an educator since 1981 when she joined the Knoxville Catholic High School faculty as a mathematics teacher. She joined Knox County Schools in 1989 as a math teacher at West High School. She was an assistant principal and Central High School from 2001 to 2003, and she became the principal at West High in 2004.”
 

I wish Ms Reynolds and her new high school well; I’m confident the new school with be a credit to Knoxville as are the rest of the Knox County schools.