County School Board member Rhonda Thurman is proposing closing the Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences campus on East Third Street and offering that building for sale.
She said CSAS students could move to the current home of Chattanooga School for the Creative Arts in North Chattanooga.
Ms. Thurman said the Chattanooga School for the Creative Arts in turn could move to the nearby Chattanooga Middle School campus.
She said there are currently 217 middle school students at the Chattanooga School for the Creative Arts as well as 301 middle school students at Chattanooga Middle School.
She stated, "We can't afford to have two middle school staffs a block apart."
Ms. Thurman said the 1,047 students at Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences could be accommodated at the current site of Chattanooga School for the Creative Arts. She said it held over 1,200 students when it was in operation as Chattanooga High School.
Ms. Thurman said the school system cannot afford the additional millions of dollars needed to renovate Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences, which also at one time was Chattanooga High School. It later was Riverside High School.
She said that building could be sold - perhaps to UTC or to Erlanger Medical Center. "I know UTC has expressed an interest in it," she said.
Ms. Thurman said funds from the sale could be used to make any renovations needed at the current Chattanooga School for the Creative Arts and the current Chattanooga Middle School.
She said the school system needs to act to dispose of schools that have been closed, including Franklin Middle School and Garber School.