Patricia Russell was eager to brainstorm about improving Hamilton County's schools with members of the community.
Russell is one of several hundred people to attend Chattanooga 2.0's first community forum Monday night held at the Bessie Smith Cultural Center, and talk about ways the public can be involved in the initiative's work to improve public education and the county's workforce development.
"I think it's powerful that people are asking the community how we can improve schools," said Russell, a school counselor at Bess T. Shepherd and Harrison Elementary. "I think if this is going to work, we need both educators and community leaders involved."
Jared Bigham, director of Chattanooga 2.0, agreed, saying accomplishing the lofty goals of Chattanooga 2.0 is a county-wide effort and needs to include all stakeholders.
He said Monday's meeting was the first of many to come, adding how he plans to take the opportunity to provide feedback to people living in all parts of the county, and not just those downtown.
The Chattanooga 2.0 movement was launched in December after the group released a sobering report about the state of education in Hamilton County. Since the release of the report, groups have been working to develop bold strategies to problems plaguing early-childhood education, K-12 schools, and the link between graduation and entering the workforce.
In mid-June, each group will release strategies, which leaders say will be strongly influenced by the comments and suggestions of people across the community.
During Monday night's four-hour open-house-style forum, people wandered between different stations addressing different findings in the report and the work underway.
Poster boards placed at stations highlighted statistics from the report: 83 percent of the jobs posted in the region paying more than $35,000 a year require more education than a high school diploma, only 40 percent of public school children arrive in kindergarten "ready to learn," and only 15 percent of Hamilton County school graduates are considered college ready based on ACT scores.
Next to the statistics were large white pieces of paper, and people were invited to write their feedback on the problems and solutions on neon sticky-notes and place them on the large pieces of paper.
After the forum, leaders of Chattanooga 2.0 said all the sticky-notes will be compiled and the comments given to the work groups.
Catherine Murray, a retired Hamilton County school counselor, wrote on a sticky note how she thinks the school system needs to focus on hiring the "best and brightest teachers," which she said requires more money.
Murray said she decided to come to the event because she had been hearing and reading about Chattanooga 2.0, but was confused what it was about. And, as an educator in Hamilton County for more than three decades was glad to offer some of her thoughts.
Emily O'Donnell, vice president for external relations at the Public Education Foundation, has been working with Chattanooga 2.0 for months and said it's been great to see how many people want to be involved in improving the county's future.
"I feel that it's important that everyone feels like they have a chance to have their voice heard," she said. "People are interested in being involved in this work and have creative and innovative ways to improve our schools."
Contact staff writer Kendi Anderson at kendi.anderson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6592. Follow on Twitter @kendi_and.