Roy Exum: The Haggling Must Stop

  • Friday, February 24, 2017
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

Far be it for me to suggest the Hamilton County Commission and the School Board need to spend more time at recess but it was obvious this week the two groups need to work at being better friends. We have nine county commissioners and just as many corresponding school board members to work together for the betterment of one entity – Hamilton County. Everybody who thinks that is happening must also wonder why our schools have floundered so long.

But you would think we have nine different nations struggling and snipping for a bigger piece of pie and some of the worst glares come from commissioners and school board members who are in the same district. All 18 elected people know our public schools are in terrible physical condition. Of the 79 schools in the district, over $200 million is needed – not just requested – and the oversight, when attached to a list of new schools that need to be opening right now, literally guarantees a tax increase.

There is absolutely no doubt we need a new county jail, which is what grossly over-crowds after just 30 percent of the county’s third-graders can read at grade level and 65 percent of our high school graduates require remedial classes. The time for beard-stroking is over; we have to move ahead so here’s what I am thinking:

County Mayor Jim Coppinger was in casual conversation when he dropped the fact there was about $900,000 in surplus bond money to help a large school project. Somehow Jim Fields nabbed $150,000 to resurface the Red Bank track which, in hindsight, was pretty dumb when we have an estimated $5 million in roofing repairs that can no longer wait.

Commissioner Greg Beck wants the $900,000 split between all nine commissioners for pet projects, which we all know is really “vote for me” (“See what I did for you?”). Greg knows better than anyone we are poised to build a $25 million all-purpose Hamilton County sports facility next to Howard for several of our high schools to share. That project has been deep in the works for months and that’s the real reason Bob Doak of the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau is dodging bullets left and right. The artillery starts next and Doak knew what was coming.

Heaven’s sakes, over 80 percent of us know the Convention & Visitor’s Bureau is badly overfunded with “tourist money.” It has gone unchecked forever and is absolutely overflowing but finance committee chair Tim Boyd has just sniffed it out. Boyd is the point-dog in the Convention & Visitor’s Bureau coming “correction” and in turn he’s asking his fellow panelists to approve East Ridge taking over the sports facilities at that city’s high school. That’s a win-win, believe me, but Boyd tried to use the same strength for CSLA before that school’s backers gummed up the works.

It is beginning to appear CSLA will get “another school” instead of a new one. It is a great idea to move CSLA to somewhere like Brainerd or Tyner’s under-utilized building. Chop away any busing for magnet schools – students come from every district – but, let’s be up front, raze the East Brainerd CSLA building and start to build a new school within a year. Does it need to be $64 million? That’s a pretty outlandish stretch with so many other needs, so realistically plan for $15-$20 million less. (Anybody who can’t build a school for $46 million needs a new architect.)

Commissioner Warren Mackey made a great point when he intimated the School Board wants the county commissioners to be the heavies. “Why do they want us to do their job?” he posed and he’s right. The County Commission should listen to the School Board’s presentation, look at the budget and other indicators, and hand the School Board one single check.

The School Board was elected to lead the schools. Its nine members should divvy up the money, go school-by-school to rezone students and fill empty classrooms, and bear both the brunt and the fruit of their actions. That would force the County Commissioners and the School Board to work in a much better fashion. And force both groups to focus on our greatest embarrassment – teacher salaries.

The proposed sports complex, built between the high school and I-24, can be a real gem, with baseball, softball and track facilities hosting several schools each week like is being done at other cities (Google the Calhoun County Sports Complex in Anniston, Ala.) and for heaven’s sake don’t call it the Howard High Complex …. It’s the county complex.

Athletic facilities must never be put ahead of academic facilities. Never. I am saddened that somebody thinks Central needs a half-million track but that school hasn’t had an auditorium in 50 years!  Oh, it has been promised every year but it’s minds we must develop, not muscle.

On a priority list of the top six needs developed by the School Board, there were three gymnasiums! Lookout Valley, Central and Hixson are begging for an estimated $6 million each. Gymnasiums are needs for sunny days. We’ve got to fast-forward Howard Middle School, and – get this -- a priority center where every child who does not speak English must attend for one year. We must teach every child English where “English is a Second Language” one year instead of 12.

Joe Smith, the newest school board member, wants to move “adult high school” to our poorest inner-city schools. Classes could begin at 5 p.m. in the same classrooms our younger students use. It’s a no-brainer. Our companies need employees. Some of our adults could get degrees in one semester!

I saw some fabulous pictures of what we are teaching in welding at Sequoyah but do you know where that is? It is so far from downtown you need to take a sandwich to eat on the way. Yes, the VW Academy is fabulous but check and see how many of our poverty kids have no way to get there each day. If we are going to wipe away poverty we have to seek it out, because the poor have no resources to drive 45 minutes each way.

Then there is this: Drug use is epidemic in Hamilton County. Darn right it is in the schools. What if every high school had an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting every day after school and invited their entire neighborhood?

It’s time for us to get better. No more talking. The future is now.

royexum@aol.com

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