School board argues about future of Hamilton County schools

HAMILTON COUNTY, Tenn. (WDEF) – The Hamilton County School Board discussed major changes coming to their school facilities Thursday.

One change was where to put a Red Bank Elementary.

Ben Connor of district six said, “Turf the football field at Red Bank high school, it would then be able to be played on by multiple sports. If that was to occur at Red Bank, that and potentially one other field, we would be able to use the football practice field to build an elementary school.”

Although some board members like Joe Smith of district three did not like the Red Bank plan.

He said, “I’m angry about this. I’m angry about the proposal, number one. I’m angry about the way it was rolled out, number two. I will just make it very clear, I’m not about this at all.”

One of the other points of discussion was about Soddy Daisy.

The original plan was to renovate Soddy Daisy High into a 6-12 campus.

Rhonda Thurman had her own plan.

She said, “It seems as though as where the baseball field might be the best location for the school. Of course, there’s about 35-36 acres there, so we have quite a bit of property to tinker with.”

Building a new Soddy Daisy Middle School seemed to go over well with most board members.

Jill Black of District 11 said, “If there is growth and a need for a new Soddy Daisy Middle School, then that is what we should do. That is what we should ask for. If we don’t get it, then we can look at our options and how we address as many schools as possible with the money we are given.”

The next stage is for the board members to rank the changes from highest priority to lowest, but there is still a long way to go…

“Even this is not set in stone. I’m being repetitive on that. Even if we approve it and move forward at our board meeting, there are still multiple steps that will be addressed publicly before the first brick is laid,” said Marco Perez of district 2.

The School Board will vote on a final facility plan in two weeks.