Jeffrey WilsonThe Hamilton County Board of Education unanimously approved on Thursday a grant application for about $1.8 million to help fund a science, technology, engineering and math school here.
Board members voted 7-0 on the district’s application to the Tennessee STEM Innovation Network, a partnership of the Tennessee Department of Education and the Battelle Memorial Institute, an independent research and development organization. Board members Joe Galloway and Everett Fairchild were absent.
If approved, the new school, planned for the Chattanooga State Community College campus, would eventually house about 300 high school students
The STEM school will be jointly funded by the grant, the school system and donations (cash and in-kind) from local businesses. Officials said Hamilton County Schools would have to put up about $462,000 in the school’s first year.
That part still had some board members hesitant Thursday.