After serving KCS superintendents for almost 25 years, Kay Good misses the people most

When snow was in the forecast, Kay Good's phone in the Knox County Schools superintendent's office rang constantly.

A few things were always certain about her job: "The phone's going to ring, the mail's going to run, and we will have school."

Good, assistant to the superintendent for almost 25 years, first served under Allen Morgan and retired in August serving superintendent Bob Thomas.

She witnessed the change from elected to board-appointed superintendent, the digital transformation of the district and the challenge of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic.

"Above all else, Kay Good was just this incredible, unwavering advocate for children and for families," former superintendent Jim McIntyre told Knox News.

Now that she's retired, Good said she misses the people she worked with the most.

"I think God blessed me by putting me there," Good said. "And then I think he showed me when the right time was for me to to leave as well. But I haven't forgotten them. I miss them. And you know the thing that means the most to me is the relationships that I built with people."

A constant resource for parents

When McIntyre experienced his first snow flurries in Knoxville, the former Boston administrator was in awe of how many calls Good fielded.

McIntyre said he would watch a transformation happen when a frustrated parent would speak with Good, who always had a calm temperament.

"She really helped me as superintendent and I think every superintendent before and after, to keep a pulse on what was happening in the school system and in the community," McIntyre said.

SUPERINTENDENT SEARCH: Search meetings are underway! Here's what to know

SCHOOL BOARD: Knox County will now have partisan school board races. What will it mean for voters?

Good's approach has always been to make the load lighter for the district's superintendents.

"That has always been my focus and my motive for staying as long as I stayed in that position because I thought I could make a difference," Good said. "Or I hoped I could make a difference."

Committed to KCS students

Before joining the superintendent's office, Good was a substitute teacher mainly at Karns Elementary and Intermediate schools. Then, she was the secretary and in-school suspension supervisor at Byington Solway Center. At the time, it was a vocational school that served Karns and Powell high schools.

Morgan was Good's driver's education teacher at Karns High School and knew her as a school employee before hiring her to the central office in January 1997.

"She had the skillset necessary, the right temperament to be in very volatile, at times, situations," Morgan told Knox News. "She could be empathetic with parents and students when need be. She was committed to excellence. She was very skillful in what she said or did not say, as the case might require, and she was never, never condescending to individuals."

Good served under six different superintendents once she moved to the central office, including both of Roy Mullins' stints as interim superintendent. She served under Morgan, Roy Mullins, Charles Lindsey, McIntyre, Buzz Thomas and Bob Thomas.

"Kay could be as serious as you wanted her to be about an issue or a job task and she completed it with excellence," Morgan said. "On the other hand, Kay could laugh and joke and have fun in the office. And which kept that climate in that superintendent's office (a) fun place to be."

Keeping the kids in mind

When Good moved to the central office, she missed the kids.

"They're the ones that keep you remembering what the whole goal is," Good said. "Not that people in central office forget that, really. But it's easier to be removed from that because you're so busy in the daily work."

She developed a reputation as a turtle lover, so people would bring her turtle figurines. And she still enjoyed seeing the excitement on her colleagues' faces when they returned from visiting a school.

Good has seen and been part of a lot of change through the years. She was the first person in the district to put a document on a server. She remembers the switch from landlines to pagers to Blackberry phones.

She witnessed students getting cell phones and how social media empowered people to share feedback directly with the superintendent. Then the pandemic came and Good became fluent on Microsoft Teams and Zoom calls.

A kind, consistent listener

When Morgan first asked Good to consider moving to the central office, he said she was incredibly humble.

Her daughter, Amber Greene, is an assistant principal at Sequoyah Elementary School.

"She takes care of everyone and is always there for her friends, her family and makes everything work. I think that's important," Greene said. "She makes everything work out without stressing. She's like, "OK, we got this, we can make a plan." And she makes everything keep going."

"Part of her gift is just to listen to people, to understand people's needs and to try to solve problems," McIntyre said. "And she did that incredibly well for several decades as assistant to the superintendent."

Greene said her mom isn't just attentive but also knows when people need to hear encouragement.

"School was not always easy for me but she always continued to remind me of what my goals were and point out my strengths and remind me that being a teacher is who I was born to be," Greene said. "And so that's a big reason why I became a teacher because she saw all the qualities in me, even at an early age."

Isabel Lohman reports on children's education, health, welfare and opportunities in East Tennessee
Twitter | Email | 865-207-9279 (mobile)
Live each day with the knowledge you need for you, your family and your community by subscribing to Knox News.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Kay Good retires from Knox County Schools superintendent office