DUNLAP, Tenn. – Picture frame outlines, wires and hangers mark the walls of Sequatchie County Schools Superintendent Johnny Cordell’s office as he readies for his exit on Wednesday, ending a 20-year career in education.
The legacy Cordell leaves behind can be seen all over town in high-tech classrooms, on the school system’s modern, consolidated campus and on its black-ink ledgers, but the longtime schools chief gives credit for that success to the county’s school staff and board members.
Cordell, 68, says he’s good at surrounding himself with talented people and he’ll miss them and the school community after he leaves.
“It’s going to be a mixed bag of emotions. I won’t miss the everyday problems, but I’ll miss going to the schools to talk to students and the teachers,” Cordell said Thursday of retirement as he sat at his desk still piled with a few little stacks of paperwork.
Cordell, a veteran naval aviator who served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, wanted to lead a classroom of students when he started his career in education in Florida in the 1970s. He taught two years there before accepting a teacher-coach post back in his hometown in Sequatchie County.