Hillcrest Elementary

Hillcrest History

"You don't know where you're going until you know where you've been."

A past class of Hillcrest second graders in 1968. The teacher is Mrs. Hinchey. Photo supplied by Joe Ramsey.

Hillcrest Elementary School was established in 1950 at 407 South Liberty Hill Road as part of the Morristown City School System. J.G. Wallace was mayor of Morristown at this time; James D. Senter was chairman of the Board of Education and A.B. Wallen was school superintendent. The architectural team of Rutherford and Painter designed Hillcrest Elementary and Anderson and Turner served as the contractors. Originally the school served grades 1 - 6 with an enrollment of approximately 300 students. Mrs. Kemp Newman was the first principal with nine teachers.

This plaque outside the school's front entrance shares information of Hillcrest's beginnings.

In 1975 a gymnasium was constructed on the north side of the campus. Until that time the existing cafeteria was used as a gym. Also at this time, the school system adoped an "open space" classroom concept in which classes were divided only by portable partitions to allow flexible grouping of students. Hillcrest was one of the schools renovated to implement this teaching philosophy. This change later proved to be not only ineffective and impractical, but ultimately very costly. In 1993 - 1994 walls were reconstructed in the school to once again enclose the classrooms at a cost of about $650,000.

Current teachers Alice Shugart and Shirley McCurry remember Hillcrest before its remodelling. Mrs. Shugart attended school here and taught in the open classrooms. Mrs. McCurry's mother, Audrey Watson, previously taught at Hillcrest.

During the 1984 - 1985 school year, Hillcrest changed from a 'Morristown City' school to a 'Hamblen County' school. As a city school, Hillcrest belonged to the Southern Association of Schools and seemingly had more benefits than the county schools had. City teachers were paid more, and city schools had their own permanent, full-time "special class" staff. The citizens of Morristown voted to keep our city and county schools divided; however, the mayor and city council overruled this decision and Hillcrest as well as all city schools became a part of the Hamblen County School System.

The last renovation occurred in 1999 - 2000 which included four parts. #1. The remodeling of the gymnasium to provide additional bleachers, a new wooden floor, additional offices, and storage areas. #2. The cafeteria was enlarged to accommodate more students. #3. Construction of two new classrooms. #4. Improved parking with additional drive-through lanes for buses. The cost of this project was in excess of $800,000.

A view of the new cafeteria.

Presently, Hillcrest Elementary serves approximately 500 students in grades K-5 with twenty-eight classroom teachers and additional professional staff including a full time physical education instructor, media specialists, reading specialists, resource teachers, ELL teacher, and family resource director. Part time music, guidance, and speech instructors along with 25 support staff members including teacher assistants, office personnel, custodians, school nutrition and transportation staff are employed. Mr. John Clawson currently serves as the principal of Hillcrest Elementary.