East Ridge Middle, Loftis Middle and McConnell Elementary are three schools in the community in select company in Tennessee.  All three not only scored a composite Level 5, the highest level of student growth in the recent Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System, but also scored Level 5 in all individual subject areas.  There were just 65 schools across 36 districts in ... (click for more)

Hamilton County Schools announced the following upcoming art events: Hamilton County High School Choral Festival: Oct. 1, 6 p.m. at Ridgedale Baptist Church    Over 300 students from high schools in Hamilton County Schools (East Hamilton, East Ridge, Ooltewah, Central, CSAS, Signal, and Brainerd) will work in rehearsals all day to prepare for a community concert. ... (click for more)

City Transportation Director Blythe Bailey said Tuesday that the Black Creek Mountain Development Group will pay for a review by an engineering firm of plans for a new city road up Aetna Mountain to a planned major development on top. Geosyntec Consultants is charging $39,754 for the examination of the planned road that will roughly follow the track of the current dirt road that ... (click for more)

Two tellers from the Hixson branch of the Bank of America testified Tuesday they are positive that Walter Frank Rice is the individual who robbed them at gunpoint last July 25. General Sessions Court Judge Lila Statom bound a bank robbery charge against Rice, 36, of 4734 Sabrina Lane, Hixson, to the Grand Jury. She raised his bond on the bank robbery charge to $250,000, calling ... (click for more)

Arming teachers with guns in the classroom, as Bill Lee proposes, would be the single most dangerous thing to happen to students in Tennessee history. Students and teachers in close proximity to loaded firearms daily? Across this state, in middle schools alone, there are probably hundreds of student/teacher conflicts a day. What if a student got hold of gun in a struggle with ... (click for more)

It’s easy for me to say that I either know, or know about, almost every person running in November for the state legislature. Yet when I describe Lemon Williams as the most exciting of the bunch, that’s because he's the only guy I had never heard of when he picked up his qualifying papers. He just turned out the best political aspirant I have had a conversation with in the last ... (click for more)