Rafalowski retiring from Sullivan schools for second, final time

She also will go down in Sullivan County Schools history as the first female director or head of the school system and the only person to hold the position of director in two non-consecutive terms. She also will be remembered for often having a pencil in her hair.

Her formal retirement June 30 comes after some 44 years of full-time employment and another two years as part-time consultant who helped with the opening of Sullivan East Middle School in January of 2020 and West Ridge High School in August of 2021.

“I was pretty heavily involved with West Ridge for 2018 and 2019,” Rafalowski recalled in a recent interview of the memories of her grandson, Terrence, born in 2016. The Board of Education agreed with Terrence when in late 2021 it named the basketball gyms area of the school the Evelyn Rafalowski Athletic Complex.

“I’m most grateful for this board and the opportunities I’ve been given,” Rafalowski said June 6 after her last board meeting before her retirement. 

“It’s bittersweet,” she said. “It is my last school board meeting.”

Asked her favorite memories, she said they involved student accomplishments and the system raising the bar for academics.

As for things she won’t miss, she mentioned deciding on show days by going out on snow patrol in the wee hours of the morning to check roads. She’s done that since 2001, two years after joining central office in the last century.

“This has been my life for 46 years as an employee and 12 years as a student,” Rafalowski said.

Asked in a later interview about the biggest changes since she started, she responded that would be the reduction in the number of schools down to two high schools, three middle schools and 10 elementary schools and the fall in student enrollment from upwards of 20,000 down to the current 8,300 or so.

The sheer numbers have gone down as the size of families has fallen, as well as because private, homeschool and online school options have grown.

Rafalowski also said that high schools have large parking lots for student parking, unlike older high schools with lots accommodating only faculty and staff. Back in the day, she said high schoolers usually rode a bus to school and elementary students often walked to school.

“When I was in high school there really wasn’t a student parking lot,” said Rafaloawki, who was a cheerleader at the old Sullivan West High School. She also attended Long Island Elementary School, town down in the 1970s on land now owned by Eastman Chemical Co.

“Evelyn came from Long Island (Elementary) and I came from Sullivan Elementary (next to the high school),” retired Rock Springs Elementary teacher Teddi Adler said. “We entered (Sullivan West) in eighth grade.”

Adler was the same age as the future director’s sister, Brenda, and a year behind the future director. Although in future year they would be on opposite sides of the teacher contract bargaining table during pay and benefits negotiations, Adler said Rafalowski always supported students and the school system.

“We didn’t always agree, but we always left as friends,” Adler said.

“If you believe in something you will work to make it the best in can be, and she did,” Adler said.

“Evelyn never stopped cheerleading for education,” Adler said. “She always wanted what was best for her Sullivan County Schools.”

The system from when Rafalowski first went to work for it went from green or black chalk boards to projectors and smart boards, then to Boxlights that have a touch option.

Rafalowski also mentioned the increase in student options, from more career technical education offerings to the ability to get certificates or associate degrees before getting a high school diploma and the free two years of college offered to students who qualify. 

“Any student who wants to go to college has an opportunity,” she said of state funding, along with grants and scholarships. “I can see so many opportunities for students now for them to be successful.”

As for the future, she said she requested and got an edger for Mother’s Day and will be doing yard work and gardening, finishing up a quilt she started long ago and taking care of her family and home.

School board members were complimentary of Rafalowski. In the meeting, Chairman Randall Jones announced the results of her final evaluation of the board. On a scale of 1 to 5, the 5 being the highest possible score, she was ranked a 4.94.

“I didn’t realize the job that she did until she left the first time,” board member Mark Ireson said at the meeting.

“Thank you for the friendship,” board member and former Sullivan East High School Principal Mary Rouse said.

“Just because you’re retiring doesn’t mean you have to be a stranger,” board Vice Chairman Michael Hughes said.

“It’s been an honor to work beside you,” said member Paul Robinson, who also with member Matthew Spivey also expressed concern for board attorney Pat Hull, who in May notified the school system of his resignation or retirement since representing the school system starting in the 1980s.

Knoxville-based attorney Chris McCarty has been chosen for that role going forward, the board decided earlier this month.

“Evelyn is just like she is up here plus more when you talk with her on the phone,” Spivey said. “You can’t be replaced but you will not be forgotten.”

Member Matthew Price said, “I appreciate the help, guidance and mentorship.” He first worked with as a detective for the Sheriff’s Office, then when he began overseeing the school resource offices and finally when he joined the school board.

Rafalowski will be replaced July 1 by Chuck Carter, a former Hamblen County educator and administrator who most recently headed Tennessee’s career technical education oversight.

“I don’t know that I ever thought it would last more than four years,” Rafalowski said in 2019 after announcing her first retirement.

The school board hired her as interim director in May 2015, then as permanent director in early August of that year to replace Jubal Yennie, who took a job in Wyoming.

The board after her first retirement hired Hawkins County native David Cox as director in 2019, and when he retired as director and from education in 2021 the board hired Rafalowski again. She had been a paid part-time consultant for two years for East Middle and West Ridge.

“We didn’t make a full-blown search (in 2015),” BOE Chairman Michael Hughes said in 2019.

“She was just an obvious choice,” Hughes said then. “We will have another director, but we will never replace her, the experience she has in every job. She filled that position in ways no one else will be able to.”

She was candidate for the position when the BOE chose Yennie in 2015 following a formal search.

Rafalowski turned 67 Feb. 1.

A former part-time sports department employee at the Kingsport Times News, she received her undergraduate degree in physical education and health education, with a minor in biology, from East Tennessee State University. She then earned two graduate degrees from Union College: one in health education, the other in curriculum and instruction.

Rafalowski started her career with Sullivan County Schools in August 1977 as a teacher at Colonial Heights Junior High, which became Colonial Heights Middle. She transferred to the former Lynn View High School for its last year in 1979.

She was at the then-Sullivan North High School when it opened in 1980, teaching and coaching softball, volleyball and track, and was there until she went to Sullivan Central High to assume an assistant principal position in 1990. 

She served under seven superintendents or directors: Paul Nelson, Jim Fleming, Wallace Ketron, John O’Dell, Glenn Arwood, Jack Barnes and Yennie. O’Dell, who moved her to central office, was the last elected superintendent and first school board-appointed director.

She came to the central office in January 1999. She served in many positions, from human resources to transportation, and was there during discussions about two facilities studies under Yennie and the move to construct West Ridge High and Sullivan East Middle.

In her second and final retirement, Rafalowski said she will spend time with her husband, grandchildren, children and family.

And as she said in 2019, her grandchildren “will certainly become a priority.”

That’s not much different than it’s been for her over 42 years, during which she said children were always her priority.

“It’s all about the kids. It’s all about the students. I hope that never ceases to be what school is about,” Rafalowski said.

“I have been very blessed. I have been afforded many opportunities and I am most grateful and thankful,” she said. “I wish the school district the greatest success.”

She also had two piece of advice for the school board and school system leaders:

1.) Listen to students, who have “great ideas.” She recalled how student input helped shape East Middle and West Ridge High, especially the open and natural light areas of West Ridge, as well as the choice of elementary math textbooks and workbooks to have thicker paper, be easier to read and have more room for answers.

2.) Always ask what is best for students and be sure to get an answer.

“You should always get the question answered: What is best for students?” Rafalowski said. “Continue to ask that question until you get clarity on what is best for students.”