Two Hamilton County Schools – Chattanooga High School Center for Creative Arts and Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts – have been awarded Magnet School of Merit awards from the Magnet Schools of America.
They were the only magnet schools in Tennessee to earn the recognition in their categories this year. There are 12 magnet schools in the Hamilton County Schools system in total.
CCA is one of Magnet Schools of America’s 2020 Schools of Excellence, the highest honor awarded by the organization. The school has been named either a School of Distinction or School of Excellence for the past several years, Principal Debbie Smith said.
Its theme is arts, but the school balances arts and academics with equal importance and treats students equally, Smith said.
“We coined the phrase that we’re the school where arts and academics share center stage. So, because we’re a school of arts doesn’t mean we emphasize it more than we emphasize our academics,” Smith said.