I just have a few observations in regard to Tuesday evening's Department of Education meeting. I find it interesting that schools were closed recently, yet there is talk of building schools. As for transportation to magnet schools, I agree that if you choose to send your child to a magnet school then perhaps you do need to be responsible for getting your child to that school. I've had no problem taking my daughter to school (a magnet school) for the entire time she's attended, and frankly I'd have it no other way.

In my mind, those issues come back to this: we need to figure out ways to improve the schools we have so that we don't have to consider building new ones. And if we improve our existing schools we won't have so many people desperate to send their children to magnet schools which manage to be top notch choices for a child's education.

Before I'm accused of attacking or complaining, I want to state that I know I don't have the solutions to these problems. However, that doesn't make me less concerned for all Hamilton County students, and I do have a right to speak my mind.

It's not "us versus them"...we're all on the same side. Or at least we should be.

Dana Lingerfelt
Chattanooga

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I fail to see how the subject of overcrowded schools in Hamilton County and its magnet schools have anything in common, except in one case. Tyner Middle and High Schools, sitting smack dab in the middle of the Ooltewah/East Hamilton zones, have a physical plant big enough to house 1000 students in the middle school and 1000 in the high school. At best today they serve 400-500 each. Room for 1000 middle and high school students. Wow, that takes care of all our overcrowding problems at both schools.

Oh, wait, we can't send those kids to Tyner; they won't go there. They'll threaten to go to private schools, or they'll get waivers to go to the school they want to go to. Across the river, look at Hixson Middle and High School. Easily room for another 200-400 in each. Maybe if the kids that were zoned for them actually went there instead of Soddy schools, there wouldn't be an issue with overcrowding there either. In both cases on either side of the river, these are schools that have housed 1000-1500 students at one time, and can again.

In any other city or county, you attend the school you are zoned for, period, and that is based on the number of students that facility can hold, not the subdivisions or apartments you want to include or exclude. Parents that are involved in their student's education make those schools in their community good places to get an education. If you want or need something different, then you have the option of sending them to a magnet school. That's the way it works.

But for some reason, Chattanooga continues to be one of the only places on the face of the earth where politicians, realtors, and developers have more say in where kids go to school than the school system itself.

Lee Crews
Hixson

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I think Ms. Thurman may be right on a few things. I think she is not a fan of the magnet schools and doesn't seem to be on their side at all.
Having said that, a new building doesn't make a school. Kids don't want to go to a school because it is in an old building. They don't because of low test scores, low graduation averages, high discipline problems etc..

This is why people go to magnet schools or choose to do whatever they have to to keep from going to these schools. Use CSAS as an example. They may have one of the oldest buildings in town; student choose too go there. The problem will not get resolved by building a new building.

Money needs to go to things that would help these schools improve in these areas. New and improved areas of vocations and areas of education fields might be a way to make students more interested in attending some schools. We should put more money into them so they can afford to upgrade equipment, hire new teachers and offer things that other schools don't have. Lets improve the schools we have and not just build more buildings.

Tracy Cornelius