I live is a section of Chattanooga that is surrounded by vast choices for private school education, from Bright School, to moderate St. Peters and St. Jude, and private special education schools. The public school choices are Rivermont, Dupont and Chattanooga Middle School. The report cards for these public schools explain why there are so many private moderate schools.
Parents do not want to place their children in low-performing schools. There has not been enough effort to improve the academic condition of the public schools in our district.
Inquiries to the Bonny Oaks empire and our school board representative to determine the plan to address the low-performing schools in our district are met with no response or the blame game of attributing all failure to "bad parenting." The blame game will not fix the problem. Communication and transparency is needed. I believe that Joe Dumas can bring about this change.
As a typical citizen, I want answers to why the schools I am zoned for have "F" and "D" academic rating. Joe Dumas is responsive to the inquiries, and is willing to investigate an issue if he does not know the answer. Mr. Dumas, as an educator at UTC, is keenly aware of the academics our children will need to enter employment. This is why I support Joe Dumas.
Allison Graham
Chattanooga