Principal’s Message - Dr. Philip Wright

Welcome to Roosevelt Elementary School!  I hope you find this website useful as you learn more about our wonderful school.  If you have further questions or would like more specific information please reach out to us personally.  We would love the opportunity to speak with you.  

As you get to know more about Roosevelt, let me first take this opportunity to tell you a little about myself.  I earned a Bachelor’s of Arts degree from King College, a Master’s of Education degree in Early Childhood Education from Milligan College and a Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis from East Tennessee State University.  After graduating from Milligan in 2003 I was hired as the music specialist at Abraham Lincoln Elementary where I served for eleven years.  In 2014 I became the Associate Principal of John Adams Elementary.  Later, in 2017 I was named the associate principal of Theodore Roosevelt Elementary and became the principal of Roosevelt in July of 2020.  

Roosevelt is known as Kingsport’s “Little School with a Big Heart.”  We are considered a little school because we have the smallest student body of the eight Kingsport City elementary schools.  Roosevelt has approximately two hundred and seventy students in Pre-K through fifth grade and is also the home of the Kingsport City Schools level one Functional Academics program.  We have sixty staff members with two teachers per grade level as well as full-time specialists in art, music, library and PE.  Support services include a school counselor, a Camelot counselor, special education teachers, a speech language pathologist and a full-time school nurse.  Our students receive additional support from a talented group of instructional assistants, school nutrition workers and custodians. 

At Roosevelt we pride ourselves in being the school with a big heart because of the caring and respectful community created by our staff and students.  Roosevelt students are “Bears that Care” and our school is proud of not only a strong academic curriculum, but also the teaching of foundational life skills to help students become successful citizens of tomorrow.  The teachers and staff love and support every child that enters the building and go above and beyond to meet their needs daily.  I am honored and proud to serve the community, staff, students and stakeholders as the principal of Roosevelt elementary and firmly believe that through strong partnerships among each group our Roosevelt students will be able to accomplish more than we could ever imagine.