Newly installed schools Superintendent Bryan Johnson told the Hamilton County Board of Education on Thursday that he will work with his team, principals and the community over the next month on a plan to improve the district’s five struggling schools.
That came after nearly an hour of discussion among board members about the state’s Partnership Zone proposal, with the majority saying the state shouldn’t intervene in the district’s five chronically underperforming schools.
“Let’s develop a comprehensive plan, so we can go back [to the state] and say, ‘This is what we see as a plan, and let’s figure out how we partner to move our schools forward,'” Johnson said. “I think at the core of everything, everybody wants to move student achievement. That’s the common ground.”
Tennessee Education Commissioner Candice McQueen asked the board last week to decide by the end of August whether it wants to create a Partnership Zone with the state to support the five schools. If not, she said, at least some of the schools likely will be placed in the state-run Achievement School District.
McQueen previously said the state is obligated to intervene, as Brainerd High, Dalewood Middle, Woodmore Elementary, Orchard Knob Middle and Orchard Knob Elementary have struggled for more than a decade to make academic gains under Hamilton County’s leadership and rank in the bottom 5 percent of schools statewide.