The Hamilton County School Board on Thursday voted 8-1 to sue the state of Tennessee on grounds that the state is not adequately funding the schools.
The motion by Dr. Jonathan Welch says the lawsuit will be filed unless Governor Bill Haslam comes up with a plan for adequate funding that is endorsed by legislative leaders. Governor Haslam has agreed to meet on March 23 with superintendents of the state's four largest school districts over the funding issue.
Dr. Welch said students, parents and teachers are having to take up the slack on meeting school funding needs. He said students at Sale Creek are selling strawberries to pay for the contracts for two teachers. And he said the school fees for parents on Signal Mountain are over $1,000 per year.
Dr. Greg Martin cast the only no vote, saying it was "not a judicial issue, but a political issue." He said he disagreed that Governor Haslam has no clout, saying he had strong power that might bring a turnaround in school funding.
Scott Bennett, school board attorney, said a growing number of school boards have voted to sue the state. He said the others are looking to Hamilton County "for leadership" on the issue.
He said Bradley County was first, and Marion County, Coffee County and Polk County followed suit. He said Grundy County was voting today and McMinn County was expected to be next.
Dr. Welch said it was no longer an issue of the small schools versus the big schools, and that all school districts could benefit from the legal action. He said, "The pie is not adequate for either side.
Attorney Bennett said, "If you look at what it takes to run a school system, something's got to give."
He added, "Hamilton County sends a tremendous amount of money to the state and gets a relatively small amount back."
School officials said 530 county school teachers do not get funding from the state's BEP funding formula.
Christy Jordan, county school finance director, said Hamilton County is the third wealthiest in the state and gets the third lowest amount of education funds from the state. She said only Sevier and Knox are lower.
She said the county is getting shorted by the state on instructional funds, classroom funding and non-classroom funding.
Ms. Jordan said there is a $10,000 difference between the average teacher salary and what the county gets from the state.
She said Hamilton County is considered a wealthy county, but she said it has a high percentage of students in the special education, poverty and English as a second-language categories.
Board member Rhonda Thurman said the BEP only covers teacher health insurance at 10 months a year instead of 12. The coverage is at 50 percent.
She said the county schools only get by due to lean management by its leaders.
Ms. Thurman said every time there is a local tax increase "it bails the state out."