So much for transparency.
On Thursday night, the Hamilton County Board of Education, without public discussion, voted on and approved a $125 million plan for new, merged and renovated schools.
For several months, the public had been waiting to learn - and give its input on - how $100 million allocated by county government for school capital projects would be spent. The public, we believe, assumed it would be able to comment on the plan before school board members voted on it. At least, that's what should have happened.
Putting the merits of what was presented Thursday aside for a moment, we're stunned that no public buy-in was sought. Instead, the plan had been presented individually to school board members, according to an Oct. 7 Times Free Press report. At the time, school board member Tiffanie Robinson said "nothing is for sure" and that the plans were "all very preliminary."
County Commissioner Greg Martin said he had not seen the plan, and Superintendent Dr. Bryan Johnson echoed that there was "nothing to be shared because there is no official plan."
However, when the plan - not on the meeting's agenda - was presented Thursday, it was the same as in the Oct. 7 newspaper report, plus several additional proposals and renderings of how schools will appear once finished.
In other words, it was a fait accompli, a done deal, a completed plan by then. All that was said beforehand was discussed out of public hearing. That had been the preferred method used by previous school boards and district administrators but one that members of the current school board - at least some of those elected in 2016 - said they would not put up with.
Now, Johnson said, community meetings will be held for the affected schools. But the public shouldn't get its hopes up. It may get a say after the fact, but don't look for plans to change.
To us, the lack of transparency on the front end is disappointing and frustrating - both from the district's new superintendent and from the school board. We expected better.
Nevertheless, we find much to like about the plan itself.
It includes a replacement building for Harrison Elementary School, the top project on the district's priority list, and a new East Hamilton Middle School, which would move from the overcrowded space its shares with East Hamilton High School.
The plan also reopens and renovates Howard Middle - closed since 2009 - as a magnet school. The project, in the already existing Howard School - would alleviate overcrowding in Clifton Hills and East Lake elementary schools.
We are intrigued by a magnet school in South Chattanooga and hope it gets the parental and community support it needs to thrive, as have other district magnets like award-winning Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences, Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts (CSLA) and Normal Park.
The most controversial of the moves - the ones that would have and will draw the most public comments - are those of merging Tyner Middle School and Tyner Academy in the latter's building to form Tyner Middle-High and of moving CSLA - which would expand to become a K-12 school - to a renovated Tyner Middle School.
From a use-of-facilities standpoint, it makes some sense. Both Tyner schools were underutilized, and school officials believe a renovated and expanded Tyner Middle School can accommodate the expanded CSLA magnet.
However, Tyner Academy has a capacity of 800 students, according to Hamilton County Schools. During the 2015-2016 school year, Tyner Middle and Tyner Academy had a combined enrollment of around 1,000 students. District officials must believe the relocated CSLA will take some pressure off the Tyner merger, because they surely wouldn't create an overcrowded school on purpose.
We have strongly supported an expanded CSLA but hope moving it from a much more centralized location (East Brainerd Road) - which had room to build a new school while the current one was being used - to a more suburban street (Tyner Road) on which traffic will increase substantially is a sound idea. The combined 1,000 students the street served in 2015-2016 could increase by half as many when the moved and renovated CSLA is in place.
The facilities plan also calls for an addition to Snow Hill Elementary, a multipurpose room addition for Lookout Valley Elementary, a new HVAC system for the Center for Creative Arts school, an elevator for Normal Park, and a new or renovated athletics facility for an as-yet-unnamed school.
For $125 million - which includes $25 million from the school district's reserve fund, a contributed amount that was said as recently as last spring to be impossible, and other sources - the plan sounds like a bargain. All the projects could begin work as soon as December, but the last of them wouldn't be completed until 2021.
The period between late October and the December start doesn't leave much time for public comment (or any rethinking that may become necessary), but clearly that doesn't matter to those who drew up the plans and got tacit approval privately before they were publicly presented.
We, the public, are expected to put our trust in nine school board members and district administration and blindly hope they're doing the right thing. Pardon us if we're both hopeful but also skeptical.