Karen Hollis
Karen Hollis, a longtime administrator and teacher in Hamilton County Schools is returning to the district as the principal of Ooltewah Elementary School.
She returns from a short retirement to assume the principal role at the school due to the resignation this week of Dr. Frank Fischel, who had joined the district in February of this year from Flanders, N.J. Ms. Hollis will be the principal at Ooltewah Elementary for the remainder of the school year.
Ms. Hollis started her career as a classroom teacher in the community at Howard Elementary School, where she taught from 1988 to 2001. She was selected the Howard Elementary Teacher of the Year in 1990.
Administration became the destination for Ms. Hollis in 2001 when she was selected to be an assistant principal at Hardy Elementary, where she served until 2006. She was selected as the principal at Ganns Middle Valley Elementary school in 2006 and became an award-winning principal in the district. She was the 2008-2009 PTA Principal of the Year, the 2011 Hamilton County Schools Principal of the Year, and the 2011 Tennessee Southeast Region Principal of the Year.
She moved to district administration in 2011 as the elementary operation director for Hamilton County Schools. Ms. Hollis retired as director of elementary teaching and learning for the district in 2019.
Ms. Hollis earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and a master’s from Trevecca Nazarene University.