Jay GreesonFor a lot of Signal Mountain residents, the news that the Town Council is considering a committee review of the up- and downsides of running its own school district is hardly a surprise.
Sure, it may not register with "sun will rise in the East" certainties. But the whispers of an independent mountain school district have been around for a while.
Potentially of bigger concern for the Hamilton County Department of Education, those whispers are being echoed in municipalities such as Red Bank, East Ridge and elsewhere across the county.
And here's one question all must face: Who can blame them?
Who can fault those looking for better? Who can fault any public servant searching for solutions to problems that have stared us in our collective face without meaningful reaction from those in charge?
The status quo is easy. Heck, ask the Hamilton County school board and the department of education. If they had bills of currency, "Status Quo" would replace "E Pluribus Unum."
The folks at Bonny Oaks are going to rally hard against this. That's understandable, because the three schools on Signal are, numbers-wise at least, among the highest-performing schools in the district.
Full disclosure: My two kids attend elementary school on Signal Mountain. And we have been overwhelmed by the attention and education they have received from the great folks at Nolan. If numbers and votes lead Signal to the change, great; if not, Nolan is in great hands.
But this is not personal or about personnel. It's about policy and purpose. If the grand plan of change - Chattanooga 2.0, which we believe is a dynamic attempt at making public schools in our county better - is to be believed, perhaps the Signal exploration makes sense.
The wise folks behind Chattanooga 2.0 advocate more independence for individual schools.
This is not an endorsement of Signal splitting off. I am not familiar enough with the numbers of the move to even remotely recommend it.
Rather, this is an endorsement of our elected officials exploring every idea in every arena to better serve their constituents, and that is something that Chris Howley and the Signal Town Council wisely did.
This is an endorsement of leaders in towns and cities across our county trying to find new ways to solve the same public school problems we have stared at for years.
Maybe an independent Signal district does not work because of the numbers. Maybe Signal voters do not want it.
But as a Signal resident, I am thankful my town council is willing to explore that option, a proposal that deserves an in-depth look for two reasons:
First, how many times have we heard the school board and HCDE rail on the state of Tennessee because the state did not know what was best for Hamilton County students in particular?
If that argument is to be believed, then why wouldn't municipalities try to tackle this issue?
If states think the federal government is too big to know what's best for the state's students, and counties think states are too big to know what is best for the county's students, then why can't towns and cities ask the same question?
Second, we should all need to be open - voters and voices, and those elected in and employed by Hamilton County - to send the clear message that the status quo is no longer good enough.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6343.