I saw today on a local news outlet that the Tyner gym will be torn down soon. The Rams will probably win a few more games there this year. They have a great coach and good players. I wish them the best.
I was the athletic director at Tyner when this gym was built around 1975. It was great. It was also the only air-conditioned gym in Hamilton County. The news report said the AC didn't work. What a shame. Where is the maintenance crew?
The last time I was in the Tyner gym, about two years ago, there were new lights, a refinished gym floor, new fiberglass bleachers and new paint. So, I guess all of this money is down the drain. None of these improvements are cheap. I guess it's easy to spend someone else's money.
I attend several Soddy-Daisy High School athletic events every year. I retired from there and have a great love for the community and school. I was in the gym Tuesday to watch the Soddy-Daisy Central basketball game. I was the assistant principal during the time when the new gym was built.
Tuesday, I was shocked by the amount of popcorn, coke spills and dirt on the bleachers. Is this the way they will take care of the new gym at Tyner? I hope not. This was the third week in a row that this hot mess was in the bleachers at Soddy-Daisy. I just kept hoping that the cleaning crew would get her done. But nope. I had enough.
Folks, this has got to be fixed. All of this filth will and does bring rats (vermin to you proper people) You gotta clean.
I spoke to the Soddy-Daisy athletic director and he said he had complained to the Central Office about this situation. I don't know who is in charge of this, but they need to answer some questions.
Go back to the old method of hiring custodians. We hired our own at Soddy-Daisy and if they didn't work, well they got fired. All I can say is that the building was clean.
Sorry to the Central fans that had to sit in the filth at Soddy-Daisy.
I encourage everyone that attends a basketball game in a county school to report any unclean situations to your school board member. Not to mention the cafeteria, classrooms and halls that the students live in. I wonder how much that contract is worth.
Finally, the men's restroom at the Soddy-Daisy gym was out of order. Go figure....or go somewhere.....
Ernie McCarson
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Hey Ernie,
I want to thank you for the feedback, but I had some questions, and I know you can’t answer back, so do me a favor—next time you’re up at the gym, come see me if you don’t mind.
Before I get to those questions, I just wanted to shed some light on what goes on at our school since you left as an administrator. If you’ve ever stuck around after a game, you would have seen parents policing the stands to clean up, such as at the Central basketball game you attended. I’m told you frequent these games, as do I, but we’ve never been formally introduced.
Soddy Daisy High School believes in our community and fosters relationships with outside organizations at both the recreation and elementary levels, providing facilities for them to host events. There was one such event the weekend prior. So yes, there is room for improvement to ensure communication is clear with any organization that uses the event space and fails to clean up after themselves or relies on others to do it for them.
I’ll be easy to spot next time you’re at a basketball game. We have Senior Night tonight—stop by the concession stand and ask them to point me out.
I remember when my son played a team in middle school, and the locker room was so disgusting that the boys had to change under the bleachers. I didn’t put the school or their community on blast, though. Instead, I went through the appropriate channels, and it was taken care of. I gave the powers that be an opportunity to address the issue and, more importantly, informed them of a situation they weren’t aware of.
Here are my questions, since you were so willing to put our school on blast:
1. Do you have a disdain for SDHS Principal Cass? Sources I trust and who are familiar with the situation—not hearsay—say that you really don’t care for her.
2. If the answer is yes, do you believe it’s appropriate to tarnish an entire school community that takes great pride in its school as part of a personal vendetta?
3. You mentioned it was the third week in a row—were all of these early-week games, such as the Tuesday game you attended this week against Central?
4. Did you address your concerns with anyone at the school—whether an administrator or even a parent—in the two prior weeks to notify them of the situation?
5. Are you aware there are two men’s restrooms in the gym? I can’t imagine you wouldn’t be.
Hope to see you at the games—if not this year, then next.
James Berry
Proud parent at SDHS
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Back in the 90's in the times of Site Based School Leadership, I was on the committee at Ooltewah High School. We were looking at the cleaning of the school, and we asked to see the cleaning contract and we were quickly told that it was none of our business. At the time it made me wonder what was being hidden. It appears that things have not changed.
David Gamble