The Hamilton County school board is set to get its hands on the final version of a 10-year facilities plan from its consultant Tuesday.
The report, more than a year in the making, will include MGT Consulting Group’s recommendations for what the district should do to deal with its $1.36 billion in deferred maintenance and how to increase operating efficiency across the district.
The plan reportedly will be broken into three phrases with associated price tags, but how Hamilton County Schools plans to pay for any or all of those phases is still unknown.
Here are some things to know – and what to expect – about the facilities report’s unveiling Tuesday night.
1. The price tag is currently $869 million, but the total cost likely will be more than that.
If the school board approved the most recent version of the facilities plan presented in January, which recommended closing 11 schools, it would cost about $869 million. But the total cost of all repairing and renovating all of the district’s current schools is closer to $1.36 billion. With inflation and the cost of building schools likely to increase, schools officials have said, that number is likely to climb over the course of a 10-year plan.
The initial report recommended renovating 11 schools, adding to 10 schools, building new buildings for three schools and closing 15 school buildings to the tune of $855 million, but community feedback during a round of community meetings in December led to changes that pushed the cost higher in the second version of the report.
2. A third of Hamilton County’s schools are in poor or unsatisfactory condition.
MGT Consulting Group scored schools on a scale of 1 to 100 based on four factors: the building’s physical condition, technology readiness, the site or land overall and its suitability for the education programs it houses.
Twenty one of the district’s schools received a “poor” or “unsatisfactory” score and 11 of those schools were recommended to be closed, including Alpine Crest Elementary, Clifton Hills Elementary, Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences (CSAS), Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts (CSLA), the Dawn Program, Lakeside Academy, Normal Park Museum Magnet (both upper and lower schools), Rivermont Elementary, Soddy-Daisy Middle and Tyner Middle.
Of the district’s 74 schools only 40.8% were considered “good” or “excellent,” with most of those being more recently built elementary schools.
IF YOU GO
The Hamilton County school board is scheduled to meet for a work session to review MGT Consulting Group’s final report at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3, in the Hamilton County Department of Education’s board room at 3074 Hickory Valley Road.
3. Poor facilities aren’t a new issue.
MGT’s audit of the district’s facilities was the first one completed by a external party in 20 years. In 1999, a similar audit was conducted, but many recommended actions were never taken. Internally, the district has kept a list of projects and priorities over the years, with some projects such as the building of new schools such as East Hamilton School or the new Harrison Elementary being completed and others not.
“Decisions were made not to invest heavily into our infrastructure, and that’s what you see today,” school board member Tucker McClendon, of District 8, previously told the Times Free Press. “No doubt that this problem didn’t just pop up on us in 2019, this problem has been there.”
In December 2018, the board voted 6-2 to approve a $337,915 bid from MGT to conduct a multi-layered audit of the district’s buildings and their maintenance needs and approved a $149,930 bid to study and predict future growth and capacity.
4. The facilities plan was a major roadblock for the district during last year’s budget cycle.
While the Hamilton County Commission debated whether to approve Mayor Jim Coppinger’s proposed fiscal year 2020 budget, which included a 34-cent property tax rate increase for schools, several commissioners cited their desire to wait until the results of the report came out before approving more recurring, operating funds for the district.
“A key thing for me is the facilities assessment plan,” District 7 Commissioner Sabrena Smedley, who was among the five commissioners who voted against the tax hike, previously said. “We don’t have that, and to tell you the truth, because of that missing information, I really don’t think we have a true idea of what the real need is yet.”
5. The school board hasn’t agreed on a plan – on what to do or how to fund it – moving forward.
As of the school board’s last meeting focused on facilities in January, it still doesn’t have a plan for what it is going to do with the final facilities report it will review Tuesday.
Board member Jenny Hill, of District 6, proposed a plan of action during the board’s annual retreat in December, and McClendon also is expected to unveil some ideas, but the district’s funding body, the county commission, has been absent in facilities talks.
Superintendent Bryan Johnson is set to unveil preliminary budget priorities to the board later this month, but it is unknown whether it will include a plan for funding a 10-year facilities plan.
Contact Meghan Mangrum at mmangrum@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6592. Follow her on Twitter @memangrum.