After protesting at the Hamilton County Department of Education Central Office, collecting petition signatures, painting cars with slogans and calling several meetings, the Citizens Against East Hamilton and Ooltewah School Rezoning now have an official voice.
At a recent Hamilton County Schools work session, the board agreed to work with a community committee that board chair Mike Evatt said will help officials examine and study a rezoning plan that was released to the public last month.
"We get to see now how serious they are going to take us," said Ryan Ledford, unofficial spokesperson for the citizen group. "We are ready to see if they are willing to work with us."
Although Ledford said the majority of people in the group are opposed to the actual rezoning plan, he said the issue at hand isn't the plan itself.
"We want a long-term change that makes sense for our community," he said. "We want an investment, not the knee jerk reaction we are getting."
He said the group is unhappy with the lack of transparency in the administration's rezoning process, and would like to see more openness with administrators regarding how those decisions are made and more public leverage in developing rezoning plans.
"This committee will act as an olive branch for the entire group," said Ledford. "In determining the committee we went back and forth a lot and challenged each other to get the best representation, but we're going to represent this thing and do it the best way possible."
According to Ledford, he understands that something has to be done and said he would probably be able to accept that change if he felt like it had been the result of a transparent and logical process.
"Logic is logic no matter who is saying it, but to us this process is not logical," he said. "It's important for everyone to take a stand, because if not now, when?"
For more information visit the Citizens Against East Hamilton and Ooltewah School Rezoning's Facebook page.