Realtors and home builders gathered at the Hamilton County school board meeting to share their views on a new policy meant to address the impact of new housing development on overcrowded schools.
In December, the school board adopted a new growth, capacity and enrollment management policy. It is designed to keep new developments from overcrowding schools and prevent students who already attend a school from being rezoned to accommodate those moving into newly built residences.
School board members have said they believed the proactive approach would best serve students, as well as that it would let developers and those purchasing the new homes know in advance that they are not going to be zoned for a certain school.
Members of the Greater Chattanooga Realtors — several wearing the association’s seafoam green scarves — attended Thursday’s meeting to question what developments the policy affects, the timeline for decisions and the impacts on bus transportation and school board representation.
“Residential growth typically follows where families want to live, and school zoning is often a major driver of that demand,” said Josh Branum, the association’s government affairs director. “When school assignments change unexpectedly or without clear standards, it can create uncertainty for homeowners and buyers, influence property values and disrupt long-term planning for families.”
On behalf of the association, he proposed forming a task force with one school board member, one home developer plus staff support and one real estate professional with staff support. The group, Branum said, would help identify pressure points and priorities related to capacity, zoning predictability and implementation.
Michael Price, owner of Chattanooga-based MAP Engineers, questioned how the policy would affect multiphase developments and whether homes built in later phases could be zoned for a different school.
“The whole idea of a neighborhood is to have community,” he said. “If you break it up and you start subdividing up the districts between those in one neighborhood, you don’t have that sense of community.”
While the agenda for Thursday’s school board meeting included the growth, capacity and enrollment policy, board discussion around the item was brief.
Under the new policy, district officials are tasked with publishing an annual report that includes each school’s enrollment, capacity, utilization rate and projected future enrollment. Based on those numbers, schools are assigned to one of three tiers.
A draft of that report was distributed to board members Thursday, and Superintendent Justin Robertson asked for feedback on the formatting and said the district was still working on the best way to calculate projected enrollment.
Fourteen county schools are listed as being in Tier 1 this year, meaning they have a utilization rate over 95% and are considered over capacity. The utilization rate is calculated by comparing a school’s total enrollment with its capacity, excluding portable buildings.
“I think, at the end of the day, this does provide the board with just better overall visibility across our school system when it comes to capacity,” said school board member Ben Daugherty, R-Signal Mountain, who wrote the policy. “It is enlightening to see it on paper.”
Contact education reporter Shannon Coan at scoan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6396.