For Hamilton County to move forward as a community, its public school system has to be strong, Superintendent Justin Robertson said during his annual State of the System address Monday.
That means it needs support that goes beyond finances, he said, including from elected officials.
“We need policy. We need legislation that supports public education,” he said in front of a crowded gymnasium at Red Bank High. “We also need them making public comments that support our school system and openly advocate for our school system.
“We also need you and us to be willing to speak boldly about what it is that our kids need to be successful, to make sure that they feel a sense of belonging, to make sure that they have the academic opportunities — whether they be going into college, career, the military or any other path,” he said, “that we’re creating those opportunities intentionally so that they can be safe and so that they can be successful.”
Superintendent calls for Hamilton County support during State of the System address
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The event, which was hosted by the district’s student leadership council, highlighted the school system’s achievements from the past year. More than a dozen students from across the county spoke either about their experiences at school or provided examples of the district’s success, including that it was named an advancing district by the state for the first time since 2019 and had its highest graduation rate in history.
Chandler Brooks-Davis, a teacher at The Howard School, also emphasized the need for community support.
One of the hardest parts of the job, she said, is that teachers can work their tails off during the school day, but if the non-academic lessons they teach students are undone at home or students don’t have the support needed to just be kids, it’s hard to say that schoolwork outweighs everything they’re going through at home.
“To make our job easier, to allow us to just focus on teaching and preparing our kids to be ready graduates, to continue to support this 94% graduation rate, to keep our chronic absenteeism low, we need support from our community stakeholders to ensure that our kids get to be kids both in and out of school,” she said.
Teachers also need funds, she said.
School officials, board members and the community have been united in ranking increasing staff compensation as the top priority for this upcoming budget season, and the district has set aside $14 million for that purpose.
The district knows that’s not sustainable, Robertson said, and to move forward, as well as sustain its current investments in programs like career and technical education, it will need more resources.
“We’re at a place where we’ve made as many strategic decisions around reinvestment as we can,” he told reporters after the event. “For us to continue to invest more in wages, we will need additional revenue. … We’re being very frugal with our spending, but the reality is, things are more expensive, so even if we get growth money, that’s not going to be enough to sustain the increases of wages that we need moving forward.”
In order to do that, he said, it’s going to take conversations at both the local and state levels about continuing to invest in public education.
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Though the majority of the event emphasized students and the district’s achievements, Robertson, at times, acknowledged broader issues that could affect students.
“We know that we have a number of kids that may be dealing with housing instability, food insecurity, that need more support,” he said. “We know that we have immigrant students, our Latino families, that may not feel as welcome today as they once did. We’re committed to continuing to create safe and welcoming environments for our kids and for our families.”
The district’s commitment to student well-being and belonging, Robertson said, is what separates it from other school systems.
“Yes, we do the academics well,” he said. “Yes, we graduate kids. Yes, we retain great teachers. But more than anything, we create environments where kids feel safe, where they feel connected, where they know that there are adults in our buildings that believe in them, and we champion what they want to become. That is something that’s incredible.”
As he wrapped up his remarks, Robertson called on attendees to uplift the work they and their colleagues are doing to support Hamilton County students. The district has a lot to be proud of, he said, and it also has a lot more work to do.
Contact education reporter Shannon Coan at scoan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6396.