Just when we thought perhaps the squabbling about Hamilton County redistricting was over, several members of the school board on Wednesday acted as though they’d slept through the whole thing and woke up to see they are being bulldozed by Hamilton Commission Chairwoman Sabrena Smedley and her GOP commission colleagues just like everyone else.
In a Wednesday statement, Hamilton County Board of Education Chairman Tucker McClendon of East Ridge and Vice Chairwoman Tiffanie Robinson of Chattanooga said they had been blindsided by the commission putting a resolution on next week’s agenda to expand the school board districts from nine to 11, mirroring its own increase in districts.
McClendon and Robinson asked the commission to slow down and defer “any redistricting of school districts until after the board has had the opportunity to discuss this issue in-depth and, perhaps, to formulate its own proposed redistricting map “to reflect the needs of the school system’s stakeholders.”
Sound familiar?
But we have to wonder just what the school board members thought was going to happen. After all, there was – finally, and after a good bit of sniping – a joint meeting of commissioners and school board members about redistricting on Oct. 26.