Girls from two very different schools on opposite sides of Chattanooga sat around tables Thursday afternoon eating ham sandwiches and chatting.
Students from a class at Girls Preparatory School were visiting Brainerd High School for the afternoon, touring the school and spending time getting to know some of the students.
Charles Mitchell, an assistant principal at Brainerd, said the relationships being built through this student partnership are crucial to the city's future, as students from a predominately poor school and an elite private school are learning to interact.
"When y'all go out into the community it's all about perception," Mitchell told the students. "Y'all have the power to make a change reach across racial and socioeconomic lines."
This was not the first time students from the two schools spent time together, as a group of Brainerd students previously visited GPS and students from both schools traveled to Nashville together last month to meet the governor.
Monica Herrera, a senior at GPS, said she sees the value in partnering with Brainerd, saying that both groups of girls have a lot to learn from each other and also share much in common.
"We need to spend time together to understand each other," Herrera said. "That's the only way you get the problems solved."
Before sharing lunch, Brainerd students took the visiting girls on a tour of the school's cosmetology and automotive labs, and into several classrooms.
The Brainerd students and teachers talked about the different opportunities students have at the school to learn a variety of skills.
Several GPS students said they were surprised by the wide variety of classes available to students at Brainerd, and students from both schools said it would be fun to trade classes every once in a while to experience what the other school has to offer.
Kimalyah Evans, a sophomore at Brainerd and president of the school's Ladies First Club, said it was important for her and fellow club members to be able to share their school with girls from GPS.
"It's important that other schools don't just listen to the negative attention about our school and come see what is on the inside," Evans said.
Brainerd High School is one of Hamilton County's five iZone schools - performing in the bottom 5 percent of schools across the state on standardized tests. Earlier this year the Tennessee Department of Education sent a report to Hamilton County addressing the lack of progress made in the district's iZone schools, including Brainerd, despite an influx of funding and support.
Mitchell said the test score data tells only half the story, as students learning to interact with people different than them will change the future.
"I do care about test scores and about data, but these relationships are equally important," Mitchell said.
Contact staff writer Kendi Anderson at kendi.anderson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6592. Follow on twitter @kendi_and.