New Principal at White Knoll High

Next school year, White Knoll High School will have a new principal -- but it will be a familiar face.

The Lexington 1 school board said it has appointed current WKHS principal Jo H. Mayer to Human Resources in the district office, and will promote assistant principal Ryan L. Player to the position of principal, effective July 1.

Mayer will be responsible for teacher and staff-quality programs for the district, responsibilities previously held by Tom Siler, who leaves Lexington 1 to become superintendent in Williston School District 29. 

Mayer has more than 40 years of education experience and began her career as a fifth-grade reading and language arts teacher in 1971 at Forest Acres Elementary School in Easley.

She joined Lexington 1 in 1975 as a sixth-grade reading and language arts teacher at Oak Grove Elementary School. In 1976, she joined Lexington High School and then moved to Gilbert High School in 1977, where she taught high school English, journalism and language arts.

Mayer moved to Irmo Middle School in 1989. She later joined Lexington 2 in 1994 and became consultant for language arts, assistant principal at Fulmer Middle School in 1996, and assistant principal at Airport High in 1998.

In 1999, Mayer returned to Lexington 1 as assistant principal at Gilbert High and moved to White Knoll High as assistant principal in 2004. She was promoted to the position of interim principal at White Knoll High in 2005 and to the position of principal in 2006.

Player, the new principal, has 12 years of education experience. He began his career in 2000 as a mathematics teacher at Sullivan Middle School in Rock Hill. In 2000, he moved to White Knoll High School when it opened and served as a statistics and algebra teacher.

Player joined the management training program of South Carolina State Credit Union in 2001 and returned to teaching in 2002 as a seventh-grade algebra teacher, football coach, after-school program teacher and mentor, and summer school administrator at Dent Middle School.

In 2004, Player returned to White Knoll High School’s ninth-grade academy program as a mathematics teacher, team leader, varsity football coach, and district summer school director.

In 2006, he was promoted to the position of assistant principal at D.W. Daniel High School in Central, and in 2007 he re-joined White Knoll High as assistant principal.

Player received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics teaching from Clemson University and his master’s degree in educational administration from the University of South Carolina.