Soddy-Daisy community discusses future of schools
As the Soddy-Daisy community gathered to give feedback on the school facilities plan released in August, many of the comments centered around one idea: Keeping SoddyDaisy students in the community.
Among other recommendations, the plan proposes expanding Daisy Elementary and closing Soddy Daisy Middle to create a K-12 experience on the current shared campus of Daisy Elementary and Soddy Daisy High.
The two-phase, seven-year plan calls for campus closures and renovations in the interest of lowering maintenance costs by having fewer buildings.
“This is a 50-year decision. We cannot afford to get it wrong,” said School Board Member Rhonda Thurman, R-Hixson, whose district includes the three schools.
The community meeting was Tuesday.
Many students leave Soddy-Daisy when they reach middle school because of the condition of the school, Thurman said. The school has had a lot of improvements over the past few years but more are needed, she said.
“We have $200 million, and they’re trying to get it to stretch as far as it can be stretched, and I can understand that, but I do not want them to do it at the expense of Soddy Daisy Middle School and Daisy Elementary,” Thurman told attendees. “I just want you to know I’m fighting for you. I’m going to try to do the right thing and get the kids to stay in the community when they get to the middle school.”
Krissy Blumeyer, a Soddy Daisy Middle parent, said the city doesn’t need to think small anymore, and the community should work to get as many new school facilities as possible — such as a swimming pool, auditorium and new practice fields — to get support behind the plan.
“We’re competing against McCallie and Baylor and all of these amazing schools, and our school can’t do it,” she said at the town hall. “If we want to keep these kids here, if we want them to be generational and continue to come back and want to be in this community and people want to move here and put their kids in these schools, then we need to think bigger. It needs to be up to date.”
In a previous interview with the Chattanooga Times Free Press, both Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Justin Robertson and County Mayor Weston Wamp said they believed creating a K-12 school in SoddyDaisy would attract families that otherwise would send their children to a private school where they could have that long-term school continuity.
“I want people to think twice about where they’re sending kids,” Robertson said in August. “If I’ve got a K-12 experience, it’s going to make some people think about: Do I send my kid to private school? I think that this facilities move and being bold here helps us recruit — and not just recruit — but retain families.”
Some attendees questioned how much interaction the younger and older students would have on campus and whether the combined school would lead to age groups sharing school buses.
Jim Higgins, a Soddy Daisy High teacher and Soddy Daisy Middle parent, said having a combined middle-high school could make students from Loftis Middle — many of which are zoned for Soddy Daisy High — gravitate toward a different high school, which would negatively affect the school’s academic and sports performance.
“We deal with an issue at the high school from a staff perspective of dealing with the great divide of Loftis and Soddy Daisy middle school,” he said. “How much more complex is that going to get for our staff? Whether it’s in athletics or for educators here in our building, of trying to convene those families together and get them on the same page.”
Teachers and parents also raised concerns about traffic and parking, citing the potential increase in the number of drivers and the dangerous roads surrounding campus. Those could cause issues on a normal day but are especially concerning in case of an emergency, teachers said. The three schools are within the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant evacuation zone.
District officials said those issues would be considered before the school board voted on the plan. They mentioned adding a third entrance to the campus and working with the city to expand surrounding roads as potential solutions.
Soddy-Daisy resident James Berry spoke in favor of the plan and said his son was zoned for the schools in Soddy-Daisy but went to other public schools due to the facilities. He noted that both of the Hamilton County high schools that recently won a volleyball state championship — Sale Creek and Signal Mountain — are combined middle-high schools.
“Combining a middle school and high school, it works,” he said. “It is better for sports. It’s better to see kids develop. It’s just better all around.”