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Cook: Our best superintendent ever and the need for two school systems

Staff photo by Doug Strickland / This photo, taken in June 2017, shows Bryan Johnson speaking to the public during a meet-and-greet in the Board of Education meeting room as members were interviewing candidates for schools superintendent. Johnson would go on to be named superintendent. Staff photo by Doug Strickland / This photo, taken in June 2017, shows Bryan Johnson speaking to the public during a meet-and-greet in the Board of Education meeting room as members were interviewing candidates for schools superintendent. Johnson would go on to be named superintendent.

By David Cook July 17, 2021 4 min read

It is time to undo the school system merger.

Let the county schools belong to the county and return the city schools to the city. The current arrangement – born of the 1997 merger – is untenable.

Just as we have a county mayor and city mayor – with neither being asked to govern what is not his – so, too, do we need a two- superintendent system. We cannot expect one school superintendent to effectively govern both the differing psychologies, needs and politics of Chattanooga and Hamilton County schools.

We need two school systems and two school superintendents.

Until that happens, we will continue to lose superintendents.