We Honor Jan King For Three Decades Of School Leadership And Service

Ten years on local radio doesn’t happen by accident, it happens when a community decides a voice is worth keeping around. We’re celebrating a decade of the George Real Estate Group on WHKP, and we start with the kind of real-world housing details that actually help: what buyer traffic looks like right now, how pricing affects days on market, and why open houses still matter in a low-inventory Western North Carolina real estate market. We also share two opportunities to tour homes this weekend, including a standout property at 1032 Brightwater Drive with a screened porch, a fireplace, and sweeping mountain views, plus an additional open house at 21 Virginia Commons Drive in Arden.

Then we shift to the heart of the Hometown Hero Series and welcome Jan King, a lifelong educator whose 30-plus years of service span the classroom, principal leadership, state-level work, and district administration. Jan talks about Henderson County Public Schools with the kind of perspective you only get after serving across North Carolina, and she gives credit where it belongs: the teachers, staff, bus drivers, custodians, and leaders who show up for students every day. She also shares the personal side of a career in education, the mentors who nudged her into leadership, and the teacher who shaped her most.

We close by celebrating Jan’s upcoming induction into the Henderson County Education Foundation Hall of Fame and by connecting the dots between schools and housing decisions for families relocating to Hendersonville and greater Henderson County. If you like practical real estate guidance paired with genuine community stories, subscribe, share the show with a neighbor, and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts.

Transcript

Ten Years On WHKP

SPEAKER_03 0:00

The George Real Estate Group Radio broadcast is celebrating 10 years on WHKP. The George Real Estate Group is celebrating 10 years on the radio live every Thursday morning at 1005 on WHKP 107.7 FM and AM 1450, and streaming online at WHKP.com. Each Friday morning at 845, the George Real Estate Group presents the Hometown Hero Award to someone in our community who goes above and beyond to make our hometown a better place to live. Here's this week's Hometown Hero Show. It's 8 45 on Friday morning, and that always means it's time for our uh George Real Estate Group, Hometown Heroes. Salute, and Noah always joins us for that. We're so good. Glad to see you, Noah. Good morning.

SPEAKER_04 0:55

Very thankful to be here. It's uh highlight of my week every Friday morning, sponsoring the Hometown Hero Series.

Weekend Open House Details

SPEAKER_03 1:00

Good to have you, man. How's the how's the real estate world? I heard you and Amy. Uh Amy's gonna be on with us in a minute, uh, talking on a little real estate before we went on the air. Got an open house tomorrow?

SPEAKER_04 1:10

Open house Saturday. Amy, you want to tell about the open house?

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Yes, it's tomorrow, 10 to 12. It's at uh 1032 Brightwater Drive. It's a really cool, it's one of the most unique houses I've ever listed. Um, and sometimes I think real estate agents say unique and they mean weird. Um but it's not weird. What makes it really unique is it has a gorgeous, like I think it's four or five hundred square foot screen porch with a fireplace on it, with three hundred and sixty-degree mountain views. It's a it's the cutest house.

SPEAKER_04 1:45

It's an amazing house and it's close to the Acousta Trail.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Yes, the Acousta Trail's right at the foot of the mountain there.

SPEAKER_04 1:50

So Brightwater Estate, you said. Uh uh 1032 Brightwater.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Brightwater Drive. Drive, okay. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:57

And that's gonna be tomorrow morning.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Yes. So tomorrow 10 to 12.

SPEAKER_03 2:00

Open uh lots of people still attending open houses every weekend. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Yes, even some during the week. We had one the other the week before Easter. We thought, well, we don't want to do an open house Easter weekend. So we did it on a Tuesday afternoon. We were flooded with people.

SPEAKER_04 2:16

Wow. People are out, people are out, and also we have another open house on Sunday from 11 to 1, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 21 Virginia Commons Drive in Arden. I mean, we again the activity's happening, the market's very strong, inventory levels are still low, buyer demand continues. Uh probably the one thing that's adjusted over the last you know 12 months is days on markets a little bit longer. But know what we find out, find out though, is if it's priced right, it's still moving quickly.

SPEAKER_03 2:44

Well, uh your website is very thorough and has a lot of listings on it.

SPEAKER_04 2:50

Absolutely. You can search all of Western North Carolina and the upstate on our website, and it's realestatebygreg.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Uh we the market is the market, the interest rates, the interest rates, but the thing that Amy and I love uh helping is in and it's ultimately helping and advocating for our clients, no matter what's going on in life. And and Amy does an incredible job at it. Her and her partner Amy.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Yes, I have to give Amy Hathaway a shout out.

Introducing Hometown Hero Jan King

SPEAKER_03 3:16

The Amy team. The Amy team. I've seen you on the Facebook page. Yes. Great. Well, Amy Lauder is here with us in the studio this morning, and uh Amy, you uh recommended to us and and we followed through, and we've got us a hometown hero this weekend. Jan King is by your side. How are you, Jan?

SPEAKER_02 3:37

I'm doing great, and I'm happy to be here.

SPEAKER_03 3:39

Well, we're really happy to have you. Amy, tell us a little bit about uh your friend here.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

Well, I don't even know where to start as far as the all the um impact that she has made in this community through her work with the school system. Um she had 30 plus years in education, taught at all different levels, was a principal. She was actually the North Carolina principal of the year several years ago. Yes. And I had the pleasure of working with her for the Department of Public Instruction. Um we had some good years there, and she impacted educators across the state in that role. And then she came back to the school system here and she ended up as um assistant superintendent.

SPEAKER_03 4:24

Well, Jan, congratulations on a 30-plus year career in education.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

Thank you, Randy. I have to say I did nothing alone my entire career. So uh I did it with a team of people, good people like Amy, and I just can't say enough about um if if if people have only known Henderson County Public Schools, then they might not realize how wonderful we have it here. Not perfect, of course, no school system is, but I can't brag enough on the things that happen here locally, on our students, our teachers, our staff, everybody from bus drive drivers and custodians all the way to the superintendent level, really being dedicated and all in for our students.

SPEAKER_03 5:04

Well, that has been my impression, Jan. It really has from coming in from the outside and and then uh getting to know a lot of educators. Noah and I have through the years now have had a lot of educators in this building, current and past, and and they're all quality people, Noah.

SPEAKER_04 5:23

Well and I think uh Jan you bring up a great point again, context and perspective. I mean, you've you've worked in schools all across North Carolina and and what we have here is something special.

From Teacher To District Leader

SPEAKER_02 5:34

It really is. As a matter of fact, when I walked in the building this morning, I remember the very first time I came to WHKP, I was with a group of students who were uh reading their w award-winning essays on air.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 5:47

And it was such an honor for those uh young people at the time who are all adults now, by the way. Um but you know, the radio station has had a long history of supporting public education here and and spotlighting a lot of our uh students and staff.

SPEAKER_03 6:02

Well, we love doing it, we love doing it. So you uh you looked at the big picture of education and you started in the classroom and you said, Well, let's do some let's find other facets and explore other avenues of education and administration and so tell us about your pathway.

SPEAKER_02 6:22

Well, I I'll say I would have been happy to stay in the classroom my entire career. Um, but what happened was there were some uh leaders who kind of tapped me and said, We think you need to think about expanding your reach. And that was hard for me at the time to even think about doing that. I loved teaching. I still uh have some of the very best memories of my whole career were in a classroom teaching APUS history or uh middle school language arts. I taught a lot of things. But um I do appreciate the opportunities that I had to to do things in leadership through the years, um, whether it was being a principal or working at the district level or working at the State Department with Amy.

SPEAKER_03 7:02

I uh uh I can relate to what you're talking about. I got into radio because I wanted to sit behind a microphone and talk. And next thing I knew, I was in administration doing payroll taxes and uh stuff like that, and I thought, what has happened to me? What has happened to me?

SPEAKER_02 7:20

I relate. I decided one day I was working on a grant report and look had looked at spreadsheets until I was cross-eyed and I thought, you know, students are so much more fun than spreadsheets.

The Call To Teach

SPEAKER_04 7:33

Well, I think it's amazing your career, and we're so thankful to have you here this morning. I'm always curious who in your mind was an impact for you as a student, and what teacher stands out in your mind that maybe led to your trajectory to be in education?

SPEAKER_02 7:49

Aaron Powell No, well, that's a great question. I'll tell you, ironically, my dad was in real estate, and I watched what he did, and y'all have some crazy hours, and you work week you work weekends all the time, and I thought, well, I don't want to do that. And my mom taught for over 30 years, and I looked at how hard she worked and said, I don't want to do that either. So I wanted to do something not in real estate and not in education, but I found out real quickly that education is a calling. Um my mom was really the the best teacher I ever had. I was in a very small school in rural western North Carolina, further west than here. And if you got if you were gonna take eighth grade language arts or what we call English, you had my mom. And so I had her as a teacher, um, and she definitely impacted my life both professionally and personally more than any other person.

SPEAKER_04 8:35

When was that moment you said I want to be a teacher?

SPEAKER_02 8:38

I was in college fighting the call to teach. I was sure that I was gonna I was a religious education major and I was gonna work in churches my whole life, and I've been able to work in churches just in volunteer, you know, capacities. But uh I was in college and decided, you know, I think I meant to teach. And actually the way I came to Henderson County was I needed to student teach somewhere and I luck lucked out and got placed at West Henderson High School and right out of college. Yeah, actually I wasn't even finished. I wasn't even finished. And I moved here, moved in. I knew my grandmother would let me live with her for for free. She lived here, and so I never left after that. We've lived here ever since.

SPEAKER_03 9:17

That's uh where d where were you born? Where did you grow up?

SPEAKER_02 9:20

Have you ever heard of Webster, North Carolina? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yes, I was I grew right on grew up on the banks of the Tuckasiji. Okay, right there in Webster.

SPEAKER_03 9:28

Beautiful part of the world out there.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

It was a wonderful place to grow up.

SPEAKER_03 9:32

Oh, I can imagine. Yeah. So uh you found Henderson County. We're well, I think we should say Henderson County found you.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

Well, we're we're great. I feel so fortunate to be here. My mom was a Henderson County native, a Mills River native. Uh actually, my mom taught your aunt, right, Amy? Is that right?

SPEAKER_01 9:49

She was my aunt's favorite teacher. Like she was your favorite teacher. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:52

It's genetic. It is.

SPEAKER_03 9:56

So how is uh how's retirement going?

SPEAKER_02 10:01

Well, I have flunked retirement right now. Um and it's hard to find educators who don't flunk retirement. You know, when I run into them at the grocery store, they tell me they're tutoring or they're being a real estate agent. Amy flunked retirement as well.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

She's a former teacher.

SPEAKER_02 10:18

And so I have uh I work part-time for Western Carolina University. They have a campus over at um Biltmore Park, and so I teach there and work a few weekends uh doing that in their graduate school. And then I also started a small business and we do consulting work for North Carolina school districts, things like writing strategic plans or um doing professional development for educators.

SPEAKER_03 10:45

Ah, okay, good, good. Uh you said we. Tell us about the family.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

Oh, we so my my we family, I um I married a teacher and a coach. He um I feel like every time we see somebody, they say, Hey coach, to my husband. Um but he coached in the public school system out in the Edneville, North High area, Apple Valley. Um and so he's still helping coach out there. My my bonus son, my stepson, is the baseball coach at North Henderson, Justin.

SPEAKER_03 11:15

Oh, great.

SPEAKER_02 11:16

And then our youngest, we don't know what happened to her, but she didn't go in education. She's a CPA, so we can't we can't figure out what happened. The rest of us are educators.

Education Hall Of Fame Honor

SPEAKER_03 11:26

Oh, well, Jan, it's fantastic. Now, uh the latest honor, and I know you've been honored and m bound to have been uh over the years, but this one is a special one coming up. You're about to do what?

SPEAKER_02 11:40

The uh Henderson County Education Foundation every year inducts up to five people into their Hall of Fame, and I am very humbled to join some amazing people into the class of of uh 2026. Bo Caldwell will be inducted. Many people know him.

SPEAKER_03 11:57

He sat in your chair.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

Uh we love Bo and Becky Varnador, who was a nurse and then instrumental in starting the apprenticeship program uh in Henderson County. Uh the markers, Curtin Sue Marker, who are incredibly generous to our educational community, are going in as educational champions, and then I'm gonna join that crew uh this year. And so that celebration is next week. Uh is that right? Do I have my calendar right? The twenty-third, April twenty-third.

SPEAKER_03 12:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:25

Week after next.

SPEAKER_03 12:26

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Week after next, yeah. April twenty-third. So uh there's uh healthy crop of what four or five there that you mentioned. Five of us, yeah. So every year uh different people go into the hall of fame and it can be up to five people, you said. Yes, yeah. Well, it's fantastic.

SPEAKER_04 12:46

It's amazing. Well, like like you said, your husband, when you guys are around town, people say, Coach, but I'm sure you run into your students all the time here in the community.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

I do, and those are my happiest moments. Um, you know, my grandkids say they don't like to go to Walmart with me because that means that we're gonna be in there too long talking to people I know, that's what they say. Um but it's a it's a blessing, and it's great to see. I always say that in education we're so lucky because we train every other profession. And it's uh it's beautiful and it's the most rewarding thing ever to see your former students who are thriving uh in whatever they've chosen to do.

SPEAKER_01 13:22

I cannot agree more. Love those times when we run into them and see they're doing well.

SPEAKER_04 13:27

It's amazing, and uh that I'm sure that's um one of the most rewarding parts uh piece pieces of of what you do.

SPEAKER_02 13:33

It is. It is.

SPEAKER_03 13:35

Well, thank you, Jan, for all you've done and continue to do for Henderson County students and uh the passion that you obviously have for education. We've uh we've noted that duly, and uh we're so glad you came to visit with us this morning.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_03 13:51

Thank you very much. We have uh a certificate and uh there's some freebie lunch certificates in there too.

SPEAKER_02 13:58

So I like lunch, so that's really nice. Thank you so much.

Why Schools Matter For Homebuyers

SPEAKER_03 14:02

Okay, well, Noah, we got a couple of minutes left to uh kind of wrap up the uh the uh part of our show here today.

SPEAKER_04 14:09

Well, and I have to say, when we're helping people move here from all over the the country, it we are able to say what an incredible education system Henderson County has, you know, for young families that are moving here, and it it is a big part of their decision-making process.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

Yeah, absolutely. I think buying a house that's I remember my dad often as he was showing houses, would he would get questions um about m usually number one, I have children and where will they be going to school?

SPEAKER_04 14:37

Right.

SPEAKER_02 14:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 14:38

I mean it it it's uh it's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

And I'm able to say like there isn't a school in this county I wouldn't send my child to.

SPEAKER_02 14:45

I feel the same way. I feel the same way. A blessing. You can't go wrong. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:51

Noah, uh get us in touch with you guys at the uh George Real Estate Group and remind us of uh an upcoming open house tomorrow.

How To Nominate And Follow Along

SPEAKER_04 14:58

Two open houses this weekend. Uh 1032 Brightwater uh Drive, also uh Virginia 21 Virginia Commons and Arden. Uh both are on our Facebook page and our Instagram. You can find the details out that there. You can also call us directly at 828-393-0134, find us online at realistatebygreg.com. But again, it's a privilege and honor to sponsor the Hometown Heroes series.

SPEAKER_03 15:21

We glad you do because uh we meet here every Friday morning. If you know of someone that needs uh nominating for uh good stuff in our neighborhood, we'd love to hear from you. And you can reach us at info at WHKP.com. And again, join us every Friday morning. What's your website again, Noel? It's realestatebygreg.com, but also don't forget to uh follow our podcast.

SPEAKER_04 15:46

We podcast all of our radio shows.

Rise Size Message And Closing

SPEAKER_03 15:48

Including this one, which will be up in just a few minutes. Have a good weekend. The George Real Estate Group is located in Flat Rock, North Carolina, near Hendersonville in Henderson County. You can find them online at realestatebygreg.com. The George Real Estate Group can be reached at 828-3930134 or stop by their office at 2720 Greenville Highway, Flat Rock, North Carolina. Tune in live each week on Thursdays at 1005 AM on WHKP 107.7 FM and 1450 AM, or stream online at WHKP.com, or download these podcasts wherever you get your podcasts. The George Real Estate Group brings you the WHKP Hometown Hero Series every Friday morning at 8.45.

SPEAKER_04 16:41

Maybe the house feels a little too big these days. The stairs a little steeper. The pace of life a little too fast. But what if your next move wasn't about letting go? It was about making space for peace, for freedom, for what matters most. At the George Real Estate Group, we understand that real estate isn't just about the house. It's about transitions, timing, and trust. We've helped thousands of families in Western North Carolina make smart, thoughtful moves. Closer to nature, closer to family, closer to home. So when you're ready to rise-size, simplify, or start fresh, we'll be here. The George Real Estate Group. Local, trusted, proven. Call us today, 828-393-0134. Find us online at realestatebygreg.com because your next chapter deserves to feel just right.