Brentwood latest to explore a breakaway

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. — Middle school students eating lunch at 9:45 a.m.

Proposed school rezoning to other communities.

Multiple portable classrooms. In Brentwood parent Grady Tabor’s mind, there’s no reason for students in one of Tennessee’s best school districts to be continually subjected to things that are perceived as barriers to learning.

Tabor and dozens of other parents believe the time is right for Brentwood to consider pulling out of the district to form its own school district focused on the needs of students living in that community.

“The success of the county may have bred a little laziness into its financial planning functions.”

While the odds are long, a separate district is not inconceivable. Germantown, along with five other suburbs outside Memphis, withdrew from the Shelby County Schools district in 2014, and Signal Mountain is exploring its own exodus from Hamilton County Schools.

But Williamson is a far cry from Shelby County and Hamilton County schools, where the rates of students who are economically disadvantaged are 59 percent and 35 percent, respectively.

Williamson County Schools are considered one of the county’s biggest draws for new residents, and just 4 percent of its students are considered economically disadvantaged.

Brentwood is far closer to being fully built out than elsewhere in Williamson County, and its one-unit-per-acre zoning requirements keep density relatively low. That’s left parents in one of Tennessee’s wealthiest cities worried as new growth in Williamson requires new schools to be built in coming years, existing capital projects needed for Brentwood’s own, aging schools will be placed on the back burner.

“We’ve got serious renovation needs, and in some cases, replacing school buildings, and that’s extremely expensive,” Tabor said. Brentwood Middle, for example, is 45 years old.

In May, Williamson County commissioners approved a $17.2 million request from the school board for expansions to Brentwood high and middle schools, which include a new science, technology, engineering and mathematics building that will increase the high school’s capacity from 1,628 students to 2,000.

That funding was contingent on the Brentwood City Commission’s approval of $2.4 million to cover principal and interest payments on the projects.

Earlier this year, county commissioners approved funding for a new elementary school in southeast Brentwood on Split Log Road.

Tabor recently told city commissioners 5 percent of future residential building permits sit within the Brentwood and Ravenwood school zones, while the remaining 95 percent will be from the Page, Independence, Summit and Nolensville school zones.

Over the next 25 years, Williamson County is projected to gain more than 350,000 new residents — and 35 percent of that growth is expected to happen in now-unincorporated areas.

Tabor and other residents recently formed a group called Study Brentwood, composed of residents who also think a feasibility study to explore secession is needed.

The possibility of a local school district has been suggested before amid previous rezoning plans, but Tabor said the catalyst for the new grassroots effort was when the Williamson County School Board introduced a district-wide rezoning plan in the spring that would have sent students from Brentwood schools to Fairview, Franklin and Nolensville.

Tabor stressed he’s not dead set on Brentwood’s secession from Williamson County Schools.

“There are two questions: Can we do a [local] school system, and should we do a local school system? We just want to answer the ‘can’ part of this,” he said.

For parent and Study Brentwood member David Brooks, the most disturbing thing about Williamson County Schools’ financial situation isn’t the possibility of a higher property or sales tax in coming years. It’s the fact the county’s 24-member commission has yet to develop a long-term financial plan to fund school projects as the district anticipates 10,000 new students over the next five years.

“We’ve been able to kick the can because the [financial] position is so strong,” Brooks said.

Brooks and his family moved to Williamson County three and a half years ago for its quality schools. But he’s concerned the county commission isn’t taking proactive steps to address the gap between existing revenue for schools and what’s needed in coming years.

“We want to see our options and understand what’s possible,” Brooks said. “The parents are not going away. We just want the county commission to do its job.”

Whether it’s a property or sales tax increase, re-examining the adequate facilities tax rate or selling some of the county’s existing assets, Brooks and others want to see the county develop strategies for meeting its long-term financial needs — not knee-jerk reactions to the impending funding crisis.

“We don’t think the commission understands its own options. That’s why we need longer term financial planning,” Brooks said. “I don’t think it’s good management to say, ‘We need a new high school auditorium or new classrooms, so let’s debate about selling the hospital.’”

“As far as which accounts to take money from, before I can get too excited about pushing for one option or another, I want to know what the options are,” he added.

THE ROAD AHEAD

Gov. Bill Haslam is less than supportive of local secession from county school districts.

“I tend to think the whole secession idea — I hate to see us get carried away with that,” Haslam told reporters during a news conference Wednesday. “There’s always been a benefit to communities that are all part of one area, and being a community together and figuring out our problems, whether it be rural schools or urban schools, or whatever the challenges may be.”

Mike Looney said he couldn’t speak for or against the proposition in his capacity as superintendent of Williamson County Schools.

“I recognize that vision is best left up to residents of Brentwood and their elected officials,” Looney said.

Speaking as a Brentwood resident himself, however, Looney thinks it’s a bad idea.

“My experience tells me when you increase overhead costs, which would be required [through] separate administrators and services, you’re duplicating the administrative functions of the new government entity that would come into existence, and that creates additional costs,” Looney said.

“The reality is, I recognize we spend less per pupil than nearly all other school districts in Tennessee, and I feel very satisfied that the tax dollars I’m contributing are being used well.”

Under Tennessee code, any municipality can create its own school district through a referendum if its charter allows for it. If city residents approve the new district via referendum, the state education commissioner then determines if a new district is equipped to serve students.

Contact Elaina Sauber at esauber@tennessean.com or 615571-1172 and on Twitter @ElainaSauber.