Signal school will have no seniors next year

The new Signal Mountain Middle-High School won’t graduate a senior class next year, the principal said.

Only four students pre-registered online for the 12th grade, which is too few to accommodate at the $36 million school.

“It just wouldn’t be viable,” Eddie Gravitte said.

Hamilton County Schools Deputy Superintendent Rick Smith said opening new high schools without a senior class is common.

High school students already are involved with friends, groups and extracurricular activities by the time they’ve finished their junior year. As they begin applying for college, there also are certain classes that seniors may need to take that wouldn’t be offered yet at a new school, he said.

“It would be cost prohibitive (to have a senior class),” Mr. Smith said.

The Signal Mountain Mountain Middle-High School is the first new high school built since 1981, when Soddy-Daisy High School opened.

Public high school students living on Signal Mountain currently attend Red Bank High School. Next year the school system must provide new Signal Mountain transportation routes for some high school students, while continuing to bus the others down the mountain to Red Bank. The district will have to add four new buses to serve the Signal Mountain area, Mr. Smith said. The cost will be about $200,000.

Mr. Gravitte said about 55 students already had pre-registered for the junior class and he expected that number to increase as the new school year approaches.

“Students are starting to get more excited,” he said.

Construction on the new school continues with work about 70 percent complete.