Lenoir City Director of Schools Announces Retirement

‘Everyone has their time, and this was mine’

Alyssa B Martin news-herald.net

Dr. Jeanne Barker, Lenoir City Schools Director of Schools, announced her retirement Monday morning, April 29, following 11 and a half years serving the district.

The memo addressed the Lenoir City School Board members and all of the Lenoir City Schools family.

Barker thanked everyone for the opportunity to serve and stated the time has come for her to pursue other interests with her family.

Her last day will be June 30, 2024, but she has offered to work a transition period into the 2024-2025 school year if needed.

A CALLING TOWARDS EDUCATION

Barker has been an educator since 1981, when she began her career at a private Christian school in Seymour. But her calling towards education came during a church retreat while in college, when she felt God call her to teach. At the time, teaching wasn’t anywhere on her mind. Barker was considering becoming an interior designer or an engineer, if she were listening to her parents.

For her, teaching and nursing were more traditional jobs for women, and her parents encouraged her to look elsewhere.

Once she heard God call her a teacher, her mind was set.

“I was in between my freshman year and sophomore, and I had gone to a church retreat,” Barker said.

“And I heard very clearly, very clearly, a voice say to me, ‘You’re going to teach.’ And, in my mind, I’m speaking back, and I said, ‘Teach what?’

“And the answer came back, ‘It doesn’t matter. It’s not about a subject. It’s about people’,” she said.

From that moment she was hooked. She was an educator called to work with people, not to teach a specific subject. Having a mission directed towards serving people, specifically children, has carried Barker through all the low and hard times of her career.

Her 43-year career has taken her to Seymour, Maryville, Lebanon and Lenoir City; and at each stop she’s made during her career, Barker has led with influence and keeping three things in mind — hope, faith and aspiration.

‘THE NEXT STEP’

While she may be leaving Lenoir City Schools, Barker still plans to continue advocating for students and being involved in education, though on a different level than she has done thus far in her “formal” career.

She said she doesn’t plan on sitting at home doing nothing and is considering consulting and writing opportunities, when she’s not traveling with her husband — something she plans to do a lot more of now.

This decision didn’t come lightly, but Barker’s retirement has been a conversation with the LCS Board for many years. Each year they ask her for “just one more year,” and board members urge her to take more time off to balance the stresses that come with being a director of schools.

This year, she was finally ready to step away from the position.

“I’ve been an educator for 43 years,” Barker said.”It’s a long time, and I’ve done a lot of things I’m very proud of. But, it was time.

“... I want that flexibility. I’m not finished, by any means, but I want that flexibility to go and do some things,” she said. “It’s time for me to just transition to the next step.”

At this stage of her life, Barker, while slightly nervous about the change, is excited to finally have the flexibility to spend quality time with her family, including her seven- week-old grandbaby, and have the opportunity to say “yes” or “no” to opportunities that may come her way.

“I would like to say (to my staff and the families of LCS) thank you for this opportunity to work with such phenomenal students, families and teachers,” Barker said. “We have some of the best students and they come with good support from our families.

“Just a heartfelt thank you for the way that I believe we’ve been able to develop students so that they can go out and accomplish their hopes and dreams and aspirations,” she continued. “Those are three words that have rung through from my initial work in education through my dissertation to the application to those three words in my career.

“When students are successful, teachers are successful. When teachers are successful, schools are successful. When schools are successful, superintendents are successful and communities grow. So, that’s where my focus has always been — on the students and their hopes, dreams and aspirations.”

While an announcement for who will take her place is yet to be determined, Barker said she recommends LCS Assistant Director of Schools Millicent Smith, a Lenoir City graduate who has been in the position for seven years.

Smith has been in every decision and conversation since her tenureship with the district, so Barker is hopeful the board will listen to her final recommendation.