East Brainerd Elementary School Dedicated

CHATTANOOGA, TN (WDEF-TV) – Hamilton county’s newest school is now officially open.
County, city and school leaders turned out Thursday morning to dedicate East Brainerd Elementary school.
And, they used the occasion to say a formal farewell to the man who’s responsible for building this–and a dozen other schools.
East Brainerd Elementary school was started two years ago on the property where David Brainerd private school stood for years. Associate superintendant Gary Waters was in charge of construction–a job he held for a generation until his recent retirement.

SUPT. RICK SMITH, HCDE "For decades, Gary was instrumental in planning and executing every construction project in Hamilton county schools."

And, these formalities were actually a salute to Gary Waters.

GARY WATERS, RETIRED ASSOC. SUPT."You know I had a wonderful career here. I worked with some great people. Our elected officials..as well as school personnel …this is a swan song, so to speak. "

The county mayor said the community owes Waters a lot for his way of building schools.

MAYOR JIM COPPINGER, HAMILTON COUNTY "A lot of people build schools with the intent that they are only going to last about 15 or 20 years..and they’re going to move on..that’s not what we do here, we try to save the taxpayers money on the front end."

In this case, the old school was used for classes as the new building went up nearby.
Waters thanked Principal Dr. Brian Stewart and his staff.

GARY WATERS "They had to endure nearly two years of being on separate campuses…the distractions of construction activity in the back but they really performed well."

Waters also praised the contractor who overcame weather delays to finish under budget at 23-million dollars.

East Brainerd Elementary was built to hold 1100 students–there are 940 already there.

The new school has 89 classrooms and is fully wireless.
Heating and air is a geothermal system.
The city of Chattanooga built a roundabout at the entrance on Goodwin Road.