Hamilton County Superintendent Expresses Concerns About Consolidation of Two High Schools into One

CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee. — Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Dr. Justin Robertson says he is concerned about moving forward with a plan to combine the county’s 2 schools under one roof.

At Monday’s Hamilton County Schools Facilities Committee meeting, Dr. Robertson advised the school board to rethink moving the Chattanooga High School Creative Arts Center to the Golden Gateway complex on Chattanooga’s Westside due to financial concerns.

Robertson noted that the proposed project and renovation would now cost more than $80 million. When the council voted in January to put the project at the top of its priority list, its estimated cost was $50 million.

“My recommendation, when I see the $83 million that we’re going to spend, at least that’s it, because it doesn’t have what Mr. Smith pointed out, which is the only furniture cost that would be more than 82-83 million dollars,” Robertson said.

Dr Robertson added at the meeting:

I would recommend that we consider converting the first and second levels to CTE (Career Technical Education). We’ll have a discussion about what that might look like in terms of a visit like Harrison Bay, right, where kids can come to multiple schools, and that option would cost somewhere around $15 million if the board chooses that option. Additionally, Clifton Hills, Soddy Daisy, DuPont Elementary and Brainerd have more than enough money to pursue these projects.

Board member Ben Connor said

We talk about how we might need a larger school, especially at all our meetings. We promised these parents that we would not create a “megaschool” for them. That we will create a school that will have the required number of people.

We all knew these things were going to be more expensive, except for one thing that was going to be more expensive, but I’m hearing that other things might be a little more expensive without batting an eyelid. .

Last year, Hamilton County Schools approved the use of the 11-acre Golden Gateway site for educational purposes.

According to ChattanoogaHistory.com, the Golden Gate site was once a prominent area of ​​Chattanooga in the 20th century.

In the 1950s, the city began a 20-year effort to move the railroad tracks out of the city center and reroute trains to new stations.

Chattanooga’s then-mayor Peter Rudolph “Rudy” Olgiati repurposed large sections of Golden Gate into an interstate project that led to urban renewal, according to ChattanoogaHistory.com.

The site later became home to Kirkman Technical School, which closed in 1991 to make way for waterfront development.

There are now plans to return a technical school to the site to be used by students at Chattanooga High School – the Center for the Creative Arts.

Last year, Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp called the property purchase “a generational investment in public education in downtown Chattanooga.”

This is just one of several changes to the district’s schools as part of the district’s Vision 2030 plan. Read more about this here.

This is a developing story that we will update as we learn more.