Superintendent Justin Robertson told Hamilton County school board members Monday that he recommends they reconsider moving the Chattanooga High School Center for Creative Arts to the Westside because the project could cost more than $80 million.
When the school board passed its final facilities priorities list in January, the first item on the list was relocating CCA to the former BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee’s Golden Gateway site off U.S. 27 at West M.L. King Boulevard.
BlueCross in 2023 accepted a $10 million bid from the county for the purchase of the Gateway building. It was to serve middle and high school students, as well as have two pathways: one for fine arts and another for career and technical education.
It included an addendum that the school would only move to the Gateway building if the new facilities were as good as or better than what the school currently has.
At the time, the district’s priorities list estimated the project would cost $50 million.
According to a facility report by MTa Architecture and Planning that was presented at Monday’s facilities committee meeting, renovating the Gateway building to have a technical school on the first level and host CCA programming, including a production theater, would cost $82.2 million. The estimate does not include soft costs, like furniture.
“What the board’s got to decide is: At $83 million, is No. 1 still what you want to do?” Robertson said. “That’s not my decision. It’s not the county mayor’s decision. It starts with this 11-person board.”
Of the $260 million bond that Hamilton County commissioners issued in August, $187 million is dedicated to the projects on the school board’s facilities list.
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Superintendent recommends Hamilton County school board reconsider plan to move CCA to Gateway
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Robertson recommended the board consider renovating the first two floors of the Gateway building for career and technical education at the cost of around $15 million. The building could look something like the Harrison Bay Future Ready Center, where multiple schools send students to take classes, he said.
If the school board decided to do that, Robertson said, then there would be more than enough funds to complete the four other school projects the board ranked at the top of its priority list.
OTHER PROJECTS
District officials also presented reports for other top-ranked school facilities priorities, including the future of Soddy Daisy Middle; creating a grade 6-12 campus at Brainerd High with Dalewood Middle students; and combining Alpine Crest, Rivermont and DuPont elementary schools at the existing DuPont Elementary site. The report for Clifton Hills Elementary, which the board ranked second in January, is expected to be ready in about two weeks, Robertson said.
For Soddy Daisy Middle, Lewis Group Architects studied whether to renovate Soddy Daisy High to create a 6-12 campus or build a new Soddy Daisy Middle on its existing site. The 6-12 campus would cost $22.3 million to $24.7 million, while the new middle school would cost $20.3 million to $25.8 million, the report said.
In the end stages of finalizing the facilities plan, school board members were presented with both those options for Soddy Daisy Middle. Board members voted in January to build a new middle school.
School board member Steve Slater, R-Soddy-Daisy, questioned why the 6-12 school was being considered because the people of his district support keeping the school where it is, he said. The district might want to consider the school’s size due to growth in the region, he said.
The existing school’s capacity is 654 students, while the proposed capacity is 605 students, according to the report.
A report by Lewis Group Architects estimates the new Hixson-area elementary school would cost roughly $50.1 million, while an MTa report estimates the Brainerd High project would cost about $34 million.
When county commissioners approved the bond, they were told the Gateway project would cost $40 million, Soddy Daisy Middle was between $25 million and $30 million, the Hixson-area elementary school was listed at $42 million, the Brainerd/Dalewood 6-12 was listed at $25 million to $30 million, and Clifton Hills Elementary was $10 million to $20 million.
School board member Jill Black, D-Chattanooga, said she found it incredibly concerning that Monday’s meeting was held without the report for Clifton Hills Elementary.
“It makes me really uncomfortable that we’re having this conversation and we’re already talking numbers and we’re already talking about priorities without having any information on the school in my district,” she said.
Robertson said the Clifton Hills elementary project is the most complicated project.
The board plans to host another facilities committee meeting before its November meeting.
Contact Shannon Coan at scoan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6396.