Rick Smith makes final pitch for $34 million school budget increase

Hamilton County School Superintendent Rick Smith was at Soddy-Daisy High School on Tuesday night for the 11th and final stop of his countywide tour to drum up public support for a $34 million annual increase to the public school system's budget.

Smith will be at the historic Hamilton County Courthouse on May 20, when he'll present his budget proposal to the county mayor and commissioners, who control the schools' purse strings and will decide whether to approve Smith's proposed 40-cent property tax increase, or $150 annually for a $150,000 home.

Smith mentioned that it was his twin daughters' birthday Tuesday, and one of them, Hilary, works as a counselor at The Howard School, a predominantly black Chattanooga high school that once took low-income students from nine public housing projects.

"Now there are two. We bulldozed seven housing projects, but we haven't changed the poverty in that community 1 percent," he said. "You're not going to police [poverty] away. You're not going to bulldoze it away."

Education is the best way to combat crime and social problems, Smith said, and society needs to "take care of children and the elderly."

But not all of the 30 people in the audience, at least a third of whom were school district employees, felt that funding was the cause of the problem -- or the solution.

"We're making the assumption that they want to learn -- a lot of them don't," said Joseph Buck, 67, who compared today's general school climate to his high school experience when "we were challenged to learn" and "homework was done -- period."

Buck said his some of his grandchildren did well at public schools on Signal Mountain, while others went to Chattanooga Christian School.

"It's a different world," he said of Chattanooga Christian School. "They do not have disciplinary problems. It's a safe, nurturing environment."

Similar sentiments were echoed by Soddy-Daisy school board member Rhonda Thurman, who opposes a school tax increase and predicts the County Commission won't approve one.

Thurman said that some Hamilton County public school teachers complain of disrespectful students who swear in school.

"In their school, the F-bomb is dropped every day," she said. "It should not be allowed in our schools."

Instead of the 5 percent salary increase that Smith proposes for teachers and other school district employees, Thurman said the teachers might rather have the district crack down on disrespect.

"We're going to stand behind you; we're not going to let the students disrespect you -- it wouldn't cost a dime," she said.

Smith, who is in his early 60s, agreed that "we have a society today that doesn't respect our teachers," adding, "How many of us would ever have said anything crosswise to a police officer?"

But he noted, "We get the kids that the other [schools] don't want. We have to take 'em."

Bob Jenkins, the retired principal of Soddy-Daisy Middle School, told the audience of his first teaching job in inner-city Memphis, where a number of eighth-grade girls in his class were pregnant.

"We take the unwashed. We take the unwanted," Jenkins said.

Soddy-Daisy County Commissioner Randy Fairbanks was at Smith's talk Tuesday. Smith said all nine county commissioners have attended at least one of his talks, as has county Mayor Jim Coppinger.

It will be Coppinger's decision whether to increase the schools budget, Smith said. Coppinger will present a school budget that commissioners will vote up or down, he said. Coppinger has declined to say what he'll do ahead of the May 20 budget presentation that Smith will make.

Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/tim.omarzu or twitter.com/TimOmarzu or 423-757-6651.