Board mulls future of Hamilton County's aging schools

Superintendent Rick Smith speaks as the Hamilton County Board of Education in June.
Superintendent Rick Smith speaks as the Hamilton County Board of Education in June.

Other business:

School Board Chairman Jonathan Welch assigned the following committees:— Finance Committee: David Testerman will serve as chairman; Donna Horn, Rhonda Thurman and George Ricks will join him.— Conferences and Consultants Committee: Donna Horn will serve as chairwoman; David Testerman, Rhonda Thurman and George Ricks will join her.— Technology Committee: Karitsa Mosley will serve as chairwoman; Joe Galloway, Steve Highlander and Greg Martin will join her.— Policy Committee: Greg Martin will serve as chair; Karitsa Mosley, Joe Galloway, Steve Highlander and David Testerman will join him.

School board members focused on the future Thursday night as they discussed the construction of new schools and how best to rid themselves of those that have been shuttered.

"Building schools is not just a school board issue, it's a community issue," said board member David Testerman.

He encouraged the school board, the County Commission and the community to be proactive in planning for future schools, saying, "this thing hasn't come on us like a freight train that was loose, this thing's been coming for a long time."

The two future schools discussed in the Hamilton County Board of Education's specially called work session both are slated to be built on property owned by the school district in the eastern part of the county. Superintendent Rick Smith said the majority of this year's enrollment growth took place in that area and the existing schools are at or nearing maximum capacity.

Construction of an East Hamilton Middle School near Apison Elementary and a new K-12 building for the Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts was discussed, and Smith reminded the board they had already approved both of these projects.

He said that he plans to talk to Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger about the need for this construction soon. The County Commission is responsible for funding these projects.

"We're going to keep growing," Smith said. "And we've got to prepare for that."

Smith warned that building two more large, mega-schools is a "pricey project," telling the board that to build East Hamilton Middle School will cost about $45 million and a new CSLA will cost close to $50 million.

Justin Witt, director of maintenance and operations for Hamilton County Department of Education, also updated the board on four ongoing projects at Hamilton County schools.

The new Ganns Middle Valley Elementary school remains on track to open next school year, Witt said; and expansions at Sale Creek Middle-High and Nolan and Wolftever elementaries are also moving forward.

Witt also discussed the sale of the old East Brainerd Elementary School, which was vacated this year when students moved into the new East Brainerd Elementary School.

Witt said the school district has been advised by the county's real estate consultants to acquire a commercial Realtor to help sell the nine-acre property, which is expected to sell for around $2.7 million.

Smith anticipates the property will attract attention from people in and out of town.

"It's very difficult to find nine acres where this piece of property is," Smith said. " It's gonna attract a lot of attention and we want to get top dollar."

Witt said he will be looking for the right Realtor for the property and will bring three names to the board for approval, hoping that the property can be placed on the market by the beginning of the year.

It was also proposed in the work session that Piney Woods Elementary School be given to the Alton Park Development Corp. in next week's board meeting.

The school has been closed for nearly a decade, and throughout this time, the Development Corp. has been using a portion of the facility to serve the Alton Park community.

Smith said it costs the district about $25,000 a year to hold onto this building, and he proposed the board turn the property's deed over to the Development Corp.

Dr. Elenora Woods, president of the Alton Park Development Corp. and the NAACP, said the group would be happy to take the building "as is" from the district and assume all responsibilities for it.

School board member George Ricks praised the work Woods and the Development Corp. have been doing out of the building and for the community, and thanked Woods for the help in upkeep and maintenance her group has done while using the facility.

"You've gotten out your own mops and brooms to do what you needed to do there," Ricks said. "I've gotten a lot of phone calls from people who want you to continue working out of this building."

Near the end of the meeting, Witt told the board that an engineer has begun inspecting the six stadiums that have been brought into question since the bleachers at East Ridge High School's Raymond James Stadium were condemned in late August.

Witt said he expects an update on the state of these other concrete stadiums by Dec. 1.

Contact staff writer Kendi Anderson at kendi.anderson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6592. Follow on twitter @kendi_and.

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