The average age of schools in Hamilton County is 40 years, and there are many large projects needed to repair the aging facilities.
Justin Witt, who reported on the needs to school board members last week, said he hopes the board and the County Commission – which controls the school district’s purse strings – can work together to identify several large projects to fund. Witt is the director of maintenance and operations for the Hamilton County Department of Education.
The commission and board met last Tuesday to discuss the needs of the entire school system’s facilities, but little, if any, consensus was reached.
The problems plaguing the county’s aging schools add up to more than $206 million of deferred maintenance, Witt told all 18 school board members and commissioners in attendance.
School board Chairman Jonathan Welch said the board began to look at this list last year, and thought it was good for the commission to also see the school-level breakdown of the numbers.
“The deferred maintenance and capital maintenance [numbers] are daunting, to say the least,” he said.
Talk of aging schools, condemned stadiums and overcrowding in the classrooms lasted for more than an hour, with factions of commissioners and school board members advocating for different concerns and agendas.
This was no more evident than concerning the proposed cell tower at East Ridge High School.
A pending 25-year lease for a cell tower on the school’s property will generate $1,500 in base rent a month, plus a one-time $10,000 donation. Also, the school system will receive 35 percent of gross revenues collected by the tower company from cellular services that use the structure.
The school board originally proposed the donated money be given to the school and that rental revenues be split between the school and the district’s technology fund.
But County Commissioner Tim Boyd is proposing that all the money be used to fund a new stadium at ERHS as its stadium was condemned last year, just ahead of The Howard School’s and Tyner Academy’s.
Welch said he worries about the problems this arrangement may cause down the road, as not all schools have the opportunity to receive this sort of additional funding.
“My concern with the cell tower proceeds is that it puts a Band-Aid on East Ridge, but doesn’t address Howard or Tyner or the other litany of needs,” Welch said. “I worry about the precedent without having some sort of plan to actually take care of some of these facilities.”
School board member George Ricks agreed that up-to-date sports facilities are great for the community, but said it is most important that all kids get the opportunity to have these facilities, not just those who live in certain communities or attend schools that have land that can be leased for cell towers.
In order for an agreement to be finalized, both the county commission and school board will need to rally five votes.
The commission unanimously decided the following day to defer a decision on the cell tower, wanting the school board to first commit to putting the money from the tower into rebuilding ERHS’ stadium.
At the school board’s regular meeting the following day, board member Karitsa Mosley called the commission’s decision to delay approval of the tower “a bullying tactic,” accusing them of trying to control how the school system spends money.
Welch recommended the board send a resolution to the commission asking them to approve the cell tower, and asking them to match the school system’s funding to improve the district’s six high school stadiums in need of repair.
“We need to take care of this problem so we’re not just leaving it out to whoever has a booster club or a Kiwanis club or just somebody with a backhoe,” he said.
School board member David Testerman, who represents East Ridge, said he agrees and that he planned to make a motion during this Thursday’s school board meeting that action be taken and money from the fund balance be used to handle the problems with bleachers at ERHS, Howard and Tyner.
During the meeting with the commission last Tuesday, both he and County Commissioner Joe Graham had voiced support for Boyd’s proposal that all the money go to ERHS’ stadium.
Overcrowding
During the meeting with both the commission and the school board last Tuesday, Ben Coulter, director of transportation for the school system, talked about the overcrowding issues at several schools across the district – specifically in the city center and the eastern part of the county.
“One thing to know about the central city is that we’ve grown 900 students in about eight years, and that’s just [in] elementary [grades],” Coulter said.
This growth is the equivalent of one large school, and he and those gathered around the table discussed many ways to create more space and redistribute students.
Lee McDade, assistant superintendent of administrative services for the school system, added that the growth in the Ooltewah area is also putting pressure on schools, and mentioned the potential need to build a new East Hamilton Middle School in order to create more space, as East Hamilton Middle/High now is at capacity.
That addition would free up more than 700 seats at what would become just East Hamilton High School, which McDade said could take some pressure off Ooltewah High School, which is also at capacity.
“Ooltewah’s got us very worried,” McDade said, talking about the increasing residential growth in the area.
Contact Kendi Anderson at kendi.anderson@timesfreepress.com or 757-6592.