Looming sale of former East Brainerd School back in spotlight after Central track vote

The track at Central High School is in poor condition Tuesday, May 10.
The track at Central High School is in poor condition Tuesday, May 10.
photo Dr. Steve Highlander speaks Friday, Aug. 19, 2016, at the Hamilton County Department of Education.

Hamilton County school board chairman Steve Highlander wore a purple tie to the County Commission meeting Tuesday morning in a show of support for a proposed new track at Central High School.

But the Purple Pounders won't be getting a new track. At least not yet.

The commission voted 5-4 to indefinitely table a resolution that would have authorized $500,000 in county credit to replace the Central High School/Brown Middle School track.

In doing so, commissioners handed the baton back to Highlander and the school board, asking the board once again for a list of spending priorities and expressing that they would like a say in how money from the looming sale of the old East Brainerd School is spent.

Commissioners Jim Fields, Greg Martin, Warren Mackey, Greg Beck and Joe Graham voted in favor of tabling the track project.

"People made statements that were, I'm sure, political to a great degree," Highlander said after the meeting. "What I want is what's best for all the kids. You look at the greatest need and you take care of that while you have the money. I'm disappointed. But in their wisdom, they decided what they thought was best."

Central High School is located in District 9, which commission Chairman Chester Bankston represents.

Beck made the motion to table the track proposal "until we can find a more equitable situation for all the commissioners on this desk."

Graham followed up by suggesting the commission should combine its $900,000 in available bond funds with the expected $4.5 million to be generated from the sale of the old East Brainerd Elementary site. But he acknowledged the school board holds the deed to the 9-acre site and "controls that purse string."

photo Joe Graham

"We're not trying to tell them what to do," Graham said. "We can't, nor would we want to. They were elected just like us, but what I would like to see is a compromise that we can all live with and combine this money as well.

"Everybody in Hamilton County, especially our students, would get a much better bang for their buck if we took our money, put it with the money from the sale of that school and came up with some projects for all nine districts."

The County Commission has been eyeing the proceeds of the East Brainerd School site sale since at least 2014, newspaper archives show.

At that time, the commission voted to allow the school district to spend $2.1 million from the sale of the old Ooltewah Elementary to pay for new security cameras at every county school. Their vote came with a condition: Commissioners wanted proceeds from the future sale of the East Brainerd Elementary site. The school board balked at the commission's attempt to earmark the proceeds and voted to ask commissioners to fund the security cameras with no conditions.

Commissioners did not take up that request, although former schools Superintendent Rick Smith said at the time that the commission "agreed to move forward with the cameras and not tie the future sale of East Brainerd to this project."

Highlander said two hours have been set aside for committee work during the school board's strategic planning meeting this weekend and that the committee chairpersons have been asked to work on coming up with spending priorities.

In regard to working with the commission on spending the proceeds of the old East Brainerd School, Highlander noted that sale hasn't gone through yet.

"We're going to wait until we've got the money in hand to make decisions on that," he said. "We will certainly consider all options. Whatever is best for the students of Hamilton County is what we need to look at."

Contact staff writer David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.

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