HCS Superintendent gives State of the System address, announces teacher pay raise push

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Dr. Bryan Johnson highlighted some successes the Hamilton County School District has had in the State of the System address at The Howard School Thursday night.

“In teachers 0 through 3, we’ve seen an increase in the percentage of teachers that are staying with us. Additionally, we like to reduce the number of principal changes that take place. And so we went from 19 principal changes to 5 principal changes,” Johnson said.

In student achievement, Johnson said that this past school year they’ve had the highest graduation rate at 86.9 percent.

That’s the highest it has been since 2012.

“Additionally, we outpaced the state on the state report card. Our student success rate is above the state average which is where Hamilton County should always be,” Johnson said.

When it comes to STEM, Johnson says earlier this year MIT identified the district as a world leader in digital fabrication spaces.

“In Hamilton County, there are 17 digital fabrication spaces and soon to be in August ’22, we’ll be adding 5 more, because preparing you for jobs in the STEM field is critically important,” Johnson said.

Throughout Johnson’s speech, he recognized people and how they are helping the school district.

It started with members of the student advisory council asking him questions, then ended with an announcement about teacher pay.

Johnson said if the board approves, teachers will be getting a 2.5% pay raise.

“We have to continue along this way. This is all because of fiscal responsibility. It’s because we’re fiscally responsible, and we are really working to be proactive with our budget. We want to be proactive versus reactive with our budget. Watching revenue and really watching what we can do,” Johnson said.

The school board will take up teacher pay and will be discussing Johnson’s contract this month.