The Hamilton County school district has wrestled with facility needs for about 25 years — ever since the district merged with Chattanooga City Schools in the 1990s, said Joe Smith, a member of the school board.
“We’ve been putting patches on patches on patches for years on some of these old school buildings,” Smith, R-Hixson, said in a phone call.
For that reason, he said, a new set of school project recommendations announced last week by County Mayor Weston Wamp and Superintendent Justin Robertson are exciting and long overdue.
“When you undertake something like this, people don’t like change,” he said. “I get it. It’s tough to make change. But all of this makes sense in terms of getting our kids first and foremost the best opportunities for modern facilities.”