Three DCSD principals to retire at year’s end
Darlington County School District says three principals will retire at the conclusion of the current school year.
Karen Kinloch, principal of St. John’s Elementary School in Darlington, Julie Mahn, principal of West Hartsville Elementary School in Hartsville, and Kathy B. Gainey, principal of Lamar High School in Lamar, have all declared their plans to retire.
Kinloch has been in education since 1992, beginning as a computer lab activity teacher in Walterboro, N.C. She also taught both fourth and fifth grades before joining the St. John’s Elementary School family as assistant principal in 2000.
In 2016, she became the interim principal at St. John’s Elementary and has served as principal since 2017.
Mahn began working in the Darlington County School District 30 years ago. She started as a kindergarten teacher at Lamar Elementary School before serving at several other schools in grades 1-5. She previously served as principal at Thornwell School for the Arts.
She will end her career at West Hartsville Elementary – the same school she attended as a child.
Gainey has worked in the Darlington County School District for more than 28 years.
She began by teaching Exceptional Education at Hartsville Junior High School. In 1999, she transferred to Lamar High School as coordinating teacher.
In 2001, she became the assistant principal there, and in 2004, she was named interim principal. The following year, she was named principal at Lamar High and has been the principal there since.