KCS marks 100th anniversary, but roots go back to 1870s

KINGSPORT — Kingsport City Schools technically marks its 100th anniversary this year along with the birthday of modern Kingsport.However, a public school serving what became Kingsport pre-dates the city because the system was started by industry and business before the city was incorporated, and the roots of public education in what is today Kingsport go back to the 19th Century. As recounted in a recent column by Vince Staten, the incorporation of the city almost didn't happen in 1917, according to an article in The Tennessean newspaper, because some folks thought the city had all the amenities of a city, including a school system, without the added tax burden. Soon after incorporation, city leaders took over the school system local industry had started and appointed a Board of Education. But the story goes back further than that.According to a timeline compiled for the city's 100th anniversary and a more specific KCS timeline, "King's Port High School" was on the banks of Reedy Creek in the 1870s. Professor Copenhaver was named the first principal in 1877 overseeing a student body of 40.In 1900, Robert E. Lee School, doing business as Oklahoma School, opened on Myrtle and Sevier Streets with a student body of 125, according to volunteer KCS historial Cheryl Rice, a retired D-B teacher and graduate. A Kingsport school system history in the 1973 Dobyns-Bennett High School year book recounted that at Oklahoma School on the west end of Wateree Street, "the books, desks and teaching materials were all mutilated, the pupils were few and the teachers were untrained."In 1904 or 1905, the Old Kingsport Grade School or Kingsport Academy opened, and in 1913 Kingsport public schools began, Rice said. Funding from Clinchfield Portland Cement Co., Kingsport Farms Inc. and the Kingsport Brick Corp. paid $4,000 for what would morph into Kingpsort schools, the year book said. Founding father J. Fred Johnson decided to start the school to help attract and keep employees in 1913, the year book recalled. The school was called Robert E. Lee School, although in 1915 the school moved to the Presbyterian Church downtown with Mabel Doggett as the teacher, according to the May 17, 1936 Kingsport Times. Rice's research indicates in 1917 the high school students attended in Broad Street Episcopal Church. It was based on the Columbia University model and East Tennessee Normal School President Sidney Gilbreath studied the situation before the industry-funded school was built, the year book said.School also was held in 1915 in a block building in the Lovedale section of town until in 1921, Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln schools opened, the year book recounts. In 1918, the Central School Building, site of present day George Washington School Apartments, opened and was open to grades 1-12. Kingsport High School was the high school portion of that school.Current Board of Education member Susan Lodal said one of the first actions of the newly incorporated city and its Board of Mayor and Aldermen was to accept the existing "city" school system and establish a school board to oversee it. That system included Kingsport High School, which began in 1919 and graduated three students. Eugene M. Couch was superintendent.In 1922, the first high school football team was coached by LeRoy Sprankle, "Father of Kingsport Athletics."In 1926, Dobyns-Bennett High School opened, shedding the Kingpsort High School name, in the building that houses John Sevier Middle School. It was named for first city Mayor J.W. Dobyns (also part owner of Dobyns-Talyor Hardware) and first Board of Education Chairman W.M. Bennett.Two years later, in 1928, the Douglass School for African Americans was built. Formerly known as Oklahoma Grove. Douglass was a Rosenwald School. Julius Rosenwald was an industrialist from Chicago, the first CEO of Sears, Roebuck and Company. He established a foundation to fund the construction of hundreds of school buildings for African-American children in the early 20th Century.In 1951, the new Douglass High opened in Riverview, but in 1966, 384 African-American students and 16 teachers integrated from Douglass to Dobyns-Bennett High School.The following year, Dobyns-Bennett High School opened in a new building at its current location, and in 1972, the graduating class at Dobyns-Bennett High School was 512 students.In 1977, African American Cora Cox earned the Tennessee Teacher of the Year Award, and Cora Cox Academy, the KCS alternative school and once co-home to D-B EXCEL, was named for her.In 1985, basketball Coach Van Huss at D-B was named National Coach of the Year for men's basketball. He died in 1990, six victories from being the winningest high school basketball coach in history. Van Huss had a 1,021-313 record in 37 years of coaching and led Kingsport to the state tournament eight of his first 14 years at that school.Graham Clark, named head football coach at D-B in 1993, is the longest-serving coach in the school's history. Likewise, in 1997, Lafe Cook joined KCS as director of bands at D-B. He is the longest-serving band director in the school's history.In 2014, D-B EXCEL at Cora Cox Academy opened as a non-traditional school focused on blended learning, and in 2017 EXCEL moved to its Clinchfield Street location.In 2016, the school system worked on plans for an addition to D-B, a regional science and technology center that also will be the new entrance to the school as outlined in early 2017. It and the purchase of Sullivan North High School/Middle School from Sullivan County are being funded by a $140 million countywide school facilities bond issue. North is to become a new city middle school, with Sevier Middle set to become an elementary and some city elementary schools to close.If all that comes to pass, the Seiver building will have been a high school, middle school and elementary school by the time it turns 100 in 2026.