Superintendent Robertson Lays Out Plan for Hamilton County Schools

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – 2030 is just seven years away.

Hamilton County Schools are thinking ahead to what they want their school system to look like in the next decade.

Dr. Justin Robertson, superintendent for Hamilton County Schools, said, “Over the past year we’ve been getting input and it really goes back to a year ago, we had six committees that were helping with my transition to being superintendent.”

Dr. Robertson says this input is at the core of their Opportunity 2030 plan.

He said, “We heard a lot about student wellness and what kids have gone through the past several years, and what supports they need to have in place to be successful. We heard from teachers that we need to do a better job of creating a culture and a system that really values them.”

One goal for Hamilton County Schools is to increase teacher pay in order to improve teacher retention rates.

This will be part of what will be the largest proposed budget in the school system’s history.

Dr. Robertson said, “Everything that we’re doing right now is within a balanced budget, but what we’re hoping to show is that we are pushing more resources into schools. So about 25 million more dollars will go into school staffing.”

With this additional funding and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence potentially shaping the future of classrooms, Dr. Robertson hopes that Hamilton County Schools will be in an innovative position.

He said, “If you have asked ten years ago, do you expect every kid to have a computer, people would’ve laughed right? So, we have to evolve with times and how that technology works. I think what we’ve done a great job of is innovating while staying true to standards.”

This innovation will have to be balanced with the needs of modern students.

He said, “I actually heard something on the radio about a study that a group did around child brain development, and the impact the last three years has had on the development of children. What we know is that kids are coming with more barriers, but they’re also coming with more strengths. We have to figure out how to work with our community partners to increase those strengths but to also remove the barriers.”

Dr. Robertson will be going more in depth into the Opportunity 2030 plan Thursday evening at his State of the System address in East Brainerd.