Looking back, Siebe proud of FHS works; yet ‘deaths’

Going back to Monday, July 22, Ryan Siebe said he “started the week as the Farragut (High School) principal.”

Within 24 hours, however, the man who led FHS for three years as principal would be promoted to a position with Knox County Schools Human Resources.

“They actually called (Tuesday, July 23) and offered me a job,” Siebe said about being named KCS Secondary Education Staffing supervisor. “Literally, it was a very short turnaround.”

Saying he leaves FHS with mixed feelings, “Farragut is a great school,” Siebe added. “I applied for this job back in May.

“I was proud of a lot of the work that we did,” he further added about Farragut. “Those were three years we accomplished a lot.”

However, “at the same time they were really hard; we had some student deaths,” Siebe said. “I don’t think anybody can go through things like that and not have mixed emotions.”

The former FHS principal elaborated on why he was eager to accept this new position.

“There’s a lot about finding great teachers, making sure that great teachers are in appropriate positions,” Siebe, 45, said. “… In a position like this you serve the schools and their needs, so that’s obviously something I’m passionate about.”

A former English teacher at FHS for seven years in the early to latter-2000s, Siebe’s first KCS administrative job was at West High School in the 2007-08 school year.

Principal at Carter High School for three years before coming to FHS in the 2016-17 school year, “Any time I have taken a new role it’s to make sure that I serve as many people as possible,” he said. “And try to bring a good product to the work I do.”

Before Carter, Siebe was curriculum principal at Austin-East Magnet High School for two years. Prior to that, he was an assistant principal at Fulton High School for three years.

His teaching career began at Unicoi County High School (two years) before first coming to KCS as a teacher at Powell Middle School (one year).

A native of Evansville, Indiana, Siebe accepted a partial athletic scholarship (men’s soccer) and attended Milligan College in Johnson City, where he graduated.