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By Kelli Gauthier
Staff Writer
Some stakeholders say their voices still are not being heard in the discussion of a proposed expansion to Normal Park Museum Magnet school.
During a Hamilton County Board of Education work session Monday, the Rev. Samuel Jackson, a member of a newly formed local task force, said students, parents and faculty at Chattanooga Middle Museum Magnet were not being considered in a proposal that would close their school and rezone some of them to other schools.
"Our concern is that the kids who are being displaced have been left completely out of the equation," he said. "If the (Normal Park) program is that good, why can't it be transferred to the kids who are already (at Chattanooga Middle)?"
Superintendent Jim Scales said he recognized that the discussion brought up plenty of "raw emotion." He urged those present to consider expanding Normal Park's program partly to salvage Chattanooga Middle, which is on the state's high-priority list for failing to meet No Child Left Behind standards.
"In another year or two, we'll be in a situation with another failing school," Dr. Scales said. "At the rate we're going, we will end up with another empty building."
The administrative recommendation will be presented to the school board for a vote at the Nov. 15 meeting. It would expand the current Normal Park program into the Chattanooga Middle facility, creating a prekindergarten through eighth-grade school, having two buildings under one administration.
School board member Everett Fairchild said he was uncomfortable with the idea of rezoning.
"I have a real problem with the different ways we treat different people," he said. "There's just no equity in what we're doing with the zones."
Under the new plan, 91 Chattanooga Middle students would be rezoned to Dalewood Middle School, 41 would attend Howard School of Academics and Technology and 56 would go to Red Bank Middle.
Some members of the board and of the public said they were concerned that the proposal was forcing minority students to relocate in order to accommodate those who are more affluent. Dr. Scales said the opposite was true, and the new Normal Park would show increased diversity.
Dr. Scales said the school would serve a population that would be 65 percent white, 31 percent black, 2.5 percent Hispanic, 1 percent Asian and 0.5 percent American Indian. Those numbers, he said, closely resemble the community makeup.
He added that the U.S. Department of Justice recently has declared that Hamilton County has unitary status, meaning the district is considered desegregated. As of the next school year, the school system will not be required to bus students to certain parts of the county to promote diversity, he said.
Michelle Lewis, whose daughter is a second-grader at Normal Park, said at the meeting that she felt there was an appropriate level of diversity at the current school.
"I have not been disappointed. I don't feel like my daughter has been in any way harmed because she's not in a predominantly black school," said Ms. Lewis, who is black.
E-mail Kelli Gauthier at kgauthier@timesfreepress.com
