Hamilton County Schools has expanded some of the neighborhoods that will be rezoned from Ooltewah Middle and High to East Hamilton Middle and High this fall.
More than 70 more kids will see changes in their attendance zone for the 2020-21 school year, based on new proposed rezoning plans the district posted on its website Thursday.
Many of the neighborhoods being impacted were affected by the rezoning that took place in 2011, when East Hamilton School was built.
Students who live in five areas in the East Brainerd and Ooltewah areas of the county would be rezoned from Ooltewah Middle and Ooltewah High to the new East Hamilton Middle and East Hamilton High under the initial proposal released in January.
Now, two additional areas of students including neighborhoods such as Valley View, Holly Hills, Forest Shadow Estates, and Cedar Creek, Oak Shadows, Lakes of Standifer and Shenandoah will also be rezoned to attend East Hamilton schools.
(READ MORE: Neighborhoods impacted by East Hamilton rezoning in 2011 to be impacted again)
Chief Operations Officer Justin Robertson previously told the Times Free Press that some adjustments had to be made when district officials realized that some neighborhoods were cut into two attendance zones and even one instance of a road cut right down the middle.
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For more information on Hamilton County Schools proposed attendance zone changes and to take a student/parent survey, visit: https://bit.ly/381Tb85.
Robertson, who moved into the operations role last December after serving as chief schools officer, said he had received a large number of calls and emails from concerned parents in those areas.
"A justification for the change is at one point [these areas] were zoned for East Hamilton so it's a valid point," Robertson said. "So we went back and made some adjustments."
The new proposed plan will increase predicted capacity at the new East Hamilton Middle School from 871 students to 907 and at East Hamilton High from 1163 to 1205, but Robertson said both schools will still have room for increased student enrollment.
The new East Hamilton Middle School has been in the works since 2017, in response to increased growth in the area. The current East Hamilton Middle/High School is over capacity with more than 1,655 students enrolled, and the district wants to ensure buildings have capacity for expected growth.
The Regional Planning Agency predicts that the area south of White Oak, which encompasses part of both East Hamilton High and Ooltewah High's zones, will grow by as many as 1,354 home owners and 1,016 renters in the next 10 years, according to district officials.
(READ MORE: Principal named for new East Hamilton Middle School)
This week the district also named a principal to lead the school - Ethan Hildreth, a former superintendent of Henry County Schools in Georgia.
Robertson and Superintendent Bryan Johnson previously told the Times Free Press that they didn't anticipate problems with the updates and don't have any community meetings planned to discuss the rezoning updates before they are presented to the school board for approval in March.
In January, the district held three community meetings to discuss these proposed zoning changes as well as changes proposed in other areas of the county, including the combining of students from Harrison and Hillcrest Elementary schools into a new elementary school this fall and the district's proposals to relieve overcrowding at Clifton Hills Elementary and other downtown elementary schools.
As far as East Hamilton zones, Robertson said in the future as the district reviews attendance zones more often, he would like to consolidate elementary school students so they attend the same middle and high schools as well.
Some of the students being added to the East Hamilton attendance zones are students who attend or attended Wolftever Elementary School with students who are instead going to Ooltewah Middle and Ooltewah High School.
The proposed zone changes for the 2020-21 school year is the first major rezoning for the district since 1998 - right after the city and the county school systems merged, Robertson said.
"Going forward, this is something we believe we need to look at on a yearly basis," Robertson said. "We want to make sure that our schools are not overcrowding."
The rezoning proposal changes comes as the district takes in preliminary recommendations from an ongoing facilities study that could potentially affect the majority of the schools in the district.
The school board is expected to review a final set of recommendations for a 20-year facilities plan from its consultant, MGT Consulting Group, on March 3. It is expected to review and vote on a final version of the attendance zone changes as its March 19 school board meeting.
Contact Meghan Mangrum at mmangrum@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6592. Follow her on Twitter @memangrum.
Staff Photo by Dan Henry/Chattanooga Times Free Press - May 07, 2012. East Hamilton Middle School.