On Sept. 15, the Hamilton County Board of Education voted to purchase a 5-acre property adjacent to Ooltewah High School for $925,000.
School board officials cited all the growth coming to the area.
“The east side of the county is growing so rapidly. Ooltewah High School is maxed out. East Hamilton [School]’s maxed out,” school board member Steve Highlander said during a followup interview. “That’s prime property where it is, and we were fortunate to get it below the assessed value.”
In the months preceding the purchase, parents of the OHS girls’ soccer team began to threaten a Title IX lawsuit regarding their daughters’ lack of playing and practice space.
For the last 10 years, the Lady Owls have been practicing on the field of a nearby church because the boys’ football team uses the field on campus, and on several occasions, the girls have had to hold home games seven miles away because the school’s stadium was being used for a football game, parents said.
With the new property soon to be acquired, the girls will finally have their own field for practice, an addition coach Richard Adolph said could come as early as next fall.
“The soccer team and families are very excited and pleased about the future,” said a representative from the OHS Girls Soccer Boosters. “We hope everything progresses to a ‘complete’ soccer field and that it is set up as the other athletic fields on campus.”
Lee McDade, assistant superintendent of Hamilton County Schools, said he and other school administrators had been working on acquiring the property long before the parents formally approached the school board in a July meeting.
“Administration at that school had told us about that property and we were looking into it and working on acquiring that not just for soccer but for future growth of that school,” McDade said.
Highlander said that means a soccer field is just the beginning.
“It’s a very positive side benefit that we’ll have room for a girls’ soccer field, but the long-term positive aspect of it is room for academic growth for the whole county,” he explained.
With OHS’ more than 1,600 students currently occupying a school built for 1,200 and 450 new homes planned for the area this year, Highlander said having land for expansion will be essential in the coming years.
“It would be premature to say what [will be built there], but there is room for expansion, and on the school board, we need to be far-sighted, not short-sighted,” he said.
As of now, the soccer field, which Adolph said will occupy less than a tenth of an acre, is the only confirmed use for the property. After that is completed, Highlander said the next installment “will be whatever’s essential to meet the needs of the schools.”
The land’s purchase has already been approved by the Hamilton County Commission, and McDade said the county will close on the property after they’ve gotten core samples and ensured the land is suitable for future use.