No school wants to lose its identity, but Hamilton County Commissioner Joe Graham’s recent suggestion about merging underutilized schools makes some sense from a dollars and numbers standpoint.
Now, dollars and numbers should never be the only criteria in considering what to do about the touchy subjects of rezoning schools and building new ones, but they are important. And it’s not like schools with traditions and loyal graduates never change in Hamilton County.
Chattanooga High School for the Creative Arts, for instance, was once the non-magnet Chattanooga High School. Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences was once Riverside High School and before that a previous location of Chattanooga High School. Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts, for at least the first 40 years of its existence, was Elbert Long Elementary School.
Graham suggested schools such as Brainerd High, Tyner Academy and Tyner Middle Academy might be merged. His idea is that once schools are merged, it would leave some building available for an expanded Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts (CSLA), which would expand from a K-8 school to a K-12 school.
We have advocated building an expanded CSLA at the current site, an expense that would run upwards of $60 million, and we still believe that is the best idea. However, we believe a merged Brainerd and Tyner Academy, which could retain Tyner’s math, science and technology component as a school within a school, offers flexible opportunities for the county.