COMMISSION BUDGET VOTE A LET-DOWN FOR STUDENTS
I am disappointed in the five Hamilton County commissioners who voted last month to approve an amendment to the proposed 2020 county budget removing the proposed 34-cent property tax increase to benefit public schools.
They made a statement. They made a choice not to support public education, not to support our children, our teachers, our staff, our superintendent and Mayor Jim Coppinger. Our community spoke loudly in support of a tax increase and said now is the time to invest in public education.
Superintendent Dr. Bryan Johnson has listened to our community and business leaders. The proposed 2020 budget was aligned with the Future Ready 2023 strategic plan developed by the school board in 2018. Priority-based budgeting, an alternative version of zero-based budgeting recognized by the Government Finance Officers Association as a public finance best practice, was the process used to prepare our budget.
The Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce recently released the Velocity 2040 Report, and more than 5,000 people took the survey. The first question of the survey was: What will most affect Chattanooga and Hamilton County over the next 20 years? The top answer: Good jobs and good schools are not available to all members of the community. The second question to the survey: What three things should we do first? The top answer: Make sure students have what they need to learn.
Hamilton County Schools has new leadership and new vision. Johnson has reorganized the senior leadership team to support our business operations. He has restructured the teaching and learning division, and we are now recruiting and retaining better teachers and providing more support for new teachers and professional development for all staff. He held parent, teacher and student advisory council meetings across all five learning communities and held five listening sessions in each learning community.
It took two years for Coppinger and Johnson to build trust, and they did it. They both want an excellent school system to serve every student in Hamilton County. If we are going to make sure that students have what they need to learn, we have to invest.
I appreciate that I have been able to build a relationship and work with my county commissioner, Chip Baker. We held budget information sessions in District 2, and he listened to everyone from all sides. In the end, he said, “I’m a conservative and I don’t like asking for taxes, but I think now is the time when everyone is aligned.” Chip voted against the amendment removing the tax increase.
What exactly does this mean? It means that five of our county commissioners are asking us to forego needed improvements in our schools and instead present a balanced budget. It means that we will not have 10 special education teachers and 30 assistants to support more inclusive classrooms; we will not be able to increase visual arts teachers to ensure all elementary schools have at least two days of arts instruction; we will not increase funds to expand jobs-ready programs so every student can complete up to five courses or industry certifications; there won’t be full-time college and career advisers at every high school; we will not have the 5% salary increase for teachers and professional employees and 4% increase for classified staff; we will not add intervention/coaching positions so all 42 elementary schools have support for struggling readers; and we will not have technology funding to provide laptops for every student in grades 6-12 with needed technical support.
A balanced budget does not serve the children of Hamilton County.
Kathy Lennon is the District 2 representative on the Hamilton County Board of Education.