School system will reboot Hamilton County High School programs

CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – For years, Hamilton county High school has been the “go-to” place for students who had dropped-out, or had other reasons for not keeping up with their grades.

Now, the Hamilton county department of education plans to re-vamp that idea and create more access to that educational opportunity.

“What they board approved last night was removing the school number for Hamilton county High school. Hamilton county High school was a program that was intended to help students graduate high school..it really never should have been held to the requirements of ESSA, and the accountability measures that schools are held to.”

It’s been there for years, but many people didn’t even know about Hamilton County High school.

It’s located on Highway 58 at Snow Hill Road…and a long way for most of its students to travel.

“What we’re trying to do is make the program more accessible to kids, right now, it has about a hundred to a hundred and twenty kids a year that are able to access that program, and so what we’re trying to do is put it in satellite campuses in different places in the county, so that more kids could access the program.”

Justin Robertson says, for instance, asking a student from Lookout Valley to travel all the to the present school near Snow Hill Road …is a burden for them.

He says most of the proposed classrooms will be located on school properties around the county…while the main hub school will be in a building by itself.

No specific locations for the various satellite campuses have been chosen so far.

Who are these students who need the special attention.

“there are a myriad of issues that could get a student behind on their credits. We could have some academic issues…you can have some family issues …there might be some health issues ..so, its really hard to say..what got students there.”

What about the cost of that ambitious program?

“It’s going to be a budget neutral thing…we’ve got a staff in place …existing staff that we can do everything we’re thinking about ..and do it really effectively.”

In Hamilton county. Ashley Henderson, News 12 Now.