The U.S. Department of Education chief will be here later today. That's cool.
There certainly will be a load of folks presenting the best we have to offer.
As Times Free Press education reporter Kendi Rainwater has told all of us, the talented folks at Battle Academy have been working on putting their best foot forward.
Jay GreesonAs well they should, of course.
Imagine in your workplace, the owner of the company coming into your cubicle and asking, "So what are you up to?"
You start to freak out a little bit, right?
You bounce between the lose-lose proposition of "Well, we are short on pencils," or the "We dang well need more money from you muckety-mucks in D.C."
This should be the time for all ideas to be put on the table. Any and all suggestions should be welcome - although we completely understand the professional and private pressures felt in the modern-day workplace - and whether they are heard is on the bigwigs flying into town and out in an afternoon.
So as we welcome the chief executive educator to the 423, we'll say this before we fall into a Hillary Clinton coughing fit:
Someone ask John King about leadership.
Yes, when we have the nation's grand poobah of education in town tonight and making the handshaking and back-slapping tour around these parts Wednesday, can someone please talk specifics with the man?
Ask him about looking at the real possibility of paying more in legal fees and settlements in the mismanagement of one our largest high schools than we do for any number of things that range from raises to development and student enrichment.
Ask him about what he would do if he were leading one of the largest school districts in the state that was among the worst in almost every metric.
Yes, we all want our best foot forward. Heck, we're Chattanooga, the city that is happy to embrace the internet celebrity we have because we're next to a cool river and our local civics groups can click a bunch of buttons on their iPhones.
But for too many students, our county-wide educational system is broken, and the chief of our country's education system is swinging by, so let's not sugarcoat things.
What should we be looking for in leadership, since we are trying to simultaneously hit the reboot while we potentially are sliding into a reshuffle of the longstanding leaders at Bonny Oaks?
Heck, what would the nation's top educator have to say about a metropolitan area that is within 25,000 people of breaking into the nation's 100 most populous cities, where too many parents ask themselves if they can afford private schools?
And let's not pretend that a couple of photo ops with Mr. King smiling with the upper 1 percent of an elite school is a fair testament of what's happening here.
We have problems; we need answers.
Here's hoping this week is not a King and pony show.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com and 423-757-6343. His "Right to the Point" columns runs on A2 on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.