With student enrollment higher than it’s ever been and schools “bursting at the seams,” Hamilton County Schools is considering adding a new specialty school, making plans to build several elementary schools and considering rezoning.
“We’ll be working hard this fall and going into winter on building plans and zoning plans,” new HCDE Superintendent Rick Smith said.
He is meeting this week with leaders from area business and industry, higher education and philanthropic organizations to decide whether to pursue a nearly $2 million state grant to establish a local Science, Technology, Engineering and Math school.
“The school, yeah, that will happen if we choose to do that,” Smith said, although noting that he expects Bradley County to also apply for this round of funding.
Applications for funding will be open from September to December, with a “thumbs up or thumbs down after the first of the year” and the resultant school open next August, Smith said. He already has plans to visit STEM schools in Ohio, which piloted the program focused on preparing students for high-tech jobs in 2008.
“I think it incubates what we all want to see – our high school kids with the ability to go work anywhere,” Smith said of the approach already in play in Nashville and Knoxville. “We’re working in the Hamilton County school system to provide excellence for our kids.”
The budget the school system is working with is at times a detriment to that mission, as the system “is not adequately funded,” but Smith said the state’s new educational staff evaluation model should start to improve local learning.
“With teachers being evaluated every year, a good part of principals’ and assistant principals’ day is going to be spent in the classroom,” he said. “If you want to change your school, get your behind out of the office and quit dealing with all those Mickey Mouse parent problems.”
Similar to the publicly available scores for teachers, which are based on their students’ achievement scores, principals will also receive a grade this year based on their school’s proficiency. All non-content employees of the school will receive the same score.
Once the principal evaluation model is completed by the state, local school systems will be able to add to it, according to Smith.
“It’s a different ballgame now,” said Smith, whose 29-year career in education has traversed the ranks. “Results and achievement have to be there. I think it’s a positive thing.”