Armuchee Principal Burris retiring
Armuchee Principal J.C. Burris looks back on a half century of doing what he loves.
As J.C. Burris sat at his desk in the principal’s office of Armuchee High School on Thursday reflecting on his 50-year run in education, his grandfather came to mind.
Papa Johnson, who was born a short time after the Civil War, retired from a long career in education at the age of 70. But in his retirement he didn’t stop, as Burris puts it, he constantly read, studied and went on to build homes up until he died at 97.
And just like Papa Johnson, the 71-year-old retiree said, “I’ve never not been busy,” and that’s not bound to change anytime soon.
Calling it quits was never something Burris really ever thought of, and even as he turned the page to his seventh decade, he said, “Whatever 70 is supposed to feel like, I didn’t feel it.”
But at the end of last school year, that novel thought of leaving the only career he’d ever known presented itself. He was the closest to retirement than he’d ever been to that point, but something didn’t feel right, he said.
It was then Burris made his decision to stay on for one more year, rounding out a half century of being everything from a teacher to an assistant superintendent, but more than anything, a principal.
Burris’ story starts years before he ever became a principal, when he began teaching in his home state of Tennessee in 1967. This was before special education classes, curriculum standards and many schools in the area of McMinn County were just beginning to integrate blacks students into white schools.
For 14 years Burris taught English and coached baseball, and he recalled the freedom he enjoyed as a teacher at that time.
There was no defined lesson plan, Burris said, and he could expand on literature into philosophy or psychology — his students feeding of his passion in the process. He didn’t just teach in the classroom, however, but in the dojo as well.
Burris started in karate as a teenager, he said, and by the time he got into education, he had opened his first dojo in Maryville, Tennessee, and would later on in the 1980s open one in nearby Athens with his wife, who has also practiced and taught the martial art. He has trained in and taught Isshin-Ryu karate, a style that originates from Okinawa.
“It’s always been a big part of my life,” he said, adding that he plans to teach in a regular setting in his retirement.
Following his teaching stint, Burris took on administrative roles for the McMinn County school district, at one point, teaching graduate courses to prospective principals. It was only a matter of time before he realized he was teaching others to be what was meant for himself.
Burris said working as a principal put him where the action was, setting the course for the school and figuring things out have always given him good feeling.
“It’s the responsibility I enjoy,” he said, and the loss of which is one thing
he’s worried about as he retires.
While a principal in McMinn County, Burris said he hired the first female and black administrators during the late ’80s and early ’90s.
With his son in college, the possibility of not having to stay in Tennessee was brought up 14 years ago. So, Burris began looking for jobs out of state, and that search led him to the open principal position at Armuchee.
His time at Armuchee High has been memorable, he said, as the school has been commended for both its academics and athletics. But it didn’t exactly start that way.
During his first year as principal, the football team didn’t win a game, and the next year they won only one. But that one win is something special for Burris, who had a football signed by the team on a shelf in his office.
“It’s just really fulfilling … to have all that recognition we’ve had at the end of my career,” he said, adding that the staff at Armuchee has been one of the best he’s ever worked with.
Burris’ wife, Carol Burris, is also retiring, as she leaves her counselor position at Armuchee Elementary.