Signal Mountain Mayor Chris Howley called out the Hamilton County Department of Education and Superintendent Bryan Johnson at Monday night’s Signal Mountain Town Council meeting, alleging broken promises.
In a prepared statement read at the end of the council’s agenda meeting, Howley outlined details from meetings with Johnson and other school system officials over the course of several months to discuss Signal Mountain’s ongoing exploration of breaking away from Hamilton County Schools to form an independent municipal school district.
According to Howley, the issues that he, Johnson and the other officials discussed and “thought we had agreed upon” included disbanding the School System Viability Committee that the Signal Mountain Town Council created earlier this year to explore the feasibility of a breakaway, to make a resolution to cease the venture and not vote on a referendum in 2018, to include Signal Mountain Middle High School in a pilot program for later start times, to provide 2 art teachers and 1 STEM teacher for Nolan and Thrasher elementary schools and to create an advisory board, among other items.
This statement comes after last week’s meeting in which Hamilton County Schools officials led by Johnson presented a united front against a Signal split.
“The reason to share these events is to illustrate the petty politics, lack of leadership, and lack of focus on kids [that], seems to me, remains the same at [the school system],” Howley said.