FACILITIES FIGHT
Red Bank, Hamilton County Schools continue to clash over elementary school site
The one public elementary school within the city of Red Bank remains at risk of closure if the Hamilton County school board votes to follow recommendations made in an updated countywide public school facilities plan that was released last week.
The original plan unveiled in August proposed the consolidation of three out of four small Hixson area elementary schools— Alpine Crest, DuPont, Hixson and Rivermont — onto one larger campus at the current DuPont Elementary site in Hixson.
Since Red Bank Elementary is in Chattanooga, closure of Alpine Crest would leave Red Bank with no public elementary school within the city limits.
At an August town hall meeting held in Red Bank to gather community input on the plan, about 100 people attended to express their opposition to the closure of Alpine Crest and desire to retain an elementary school within city limits. A petition in support of keeping Alpine Crest open that garnered 2,000 signatures was also presented.
County and school officials are proposing a number of school consolidations to save money on maintenance costs. The plan revealed at Thursday’s school board meeting recommended combining Alpine Crest, Rivermont and DuPont elementary schools at either the existing DuPont elementary site or the former Red Bank Middle site on Dayton Boulevard.
At the Thursday meeting, Red Bank Mayor Hollie Berry presented the board with the city’s proposal to contribute $1 million toward the construction of a new elementary school within the city on any site other than the former Red Bank Middle site.
Red Bank’s proposal suggested the Hamilton County Schools-owned sites of the former White Oak Elementary, the existing Alpine Crest Elementary and current Red Bank middle and high schools as potential sites for the new school.
The Red Bank City Commission held a meeting Wednesday to vote on the proposal, which was approved by a 3-2 vote after a two-hour discussion.
The former Red Bank Middle site is owned by the city, which recently set about a more openended process to determine what to do with the property.
“The hottest topic in our community for the last three years is what to do with that property,” Berry said of the 12-acre site, which is the only large parcel of undeveloped land in the city’s central business district. “The vice mayor and I, who took office in 2020, basically ran on a campaign of making sure that nothing happened to that property without a thoroughly vetted public input process happening prior to that important decision.”
Berry told school board members the city is not opposed to constructing a school on the site, but officials will not make that decision without adequate time to gather public input.
Building on the city’s preferred sites — the White Oak and Alpine Crest properties — would involve additional costs for the county, which the city’s cost-sharing proposal aims to address, Berry said.
School Board Member Larry Grohn, R-East Ridge, said he finds it unfortunate that Red Bank officials excluded the former middle school site as an option, adding that the $1 million offered by the city to construct a school at the White Oak or Alpine Crest properties is “just a drop in the bucket.”
According to the facilities plan, constructing the new school on the DuPont Elementary or former middle school site would cost an estimated $35-40 million. No estimate exists for the cost of constructing a new school at the White Oak or Alpine Crest sites, but officials have said flattening the White Oak site and temporarily relocating students during construction at Alpine Crest would create additional expense over other options.
Grohn said he feels city officials are ignoring the desire of most Red Bank citizens to retain an elementary school in the city by taking the former middle school site off the table.
“You guys could have figured out what the desires of your community is in the three years that you’ve been in office,” Grohn said at the meeting. “I don’t think it takes a $150,000 consultant. If it does, this consideration — which is a multi-generational decision that you’re making — should be their No. 1 priority to work within this school board’s timeframe and the County Commission timeframe.”
School Board Member Tiffanie Robinson, an independent from Chattanooga, said the board is lucky the city is entertaining different options for the school and she does not feel Red Bank is obligated to offer the school system a city asset for which the city already has plans.
In response to Robinson’s question of whether the school system administration is negotiating with city officials, Superintendent Justin Robinson said the option to swap the 17-acre Alpine Crest site owned by the school system for the middle school site owned by the city was presented because of Red Bank’s request to keep an elementary school within the city.
“I think we’ve gone above and beyond,” Robertson said. “We have negotiated, and we have come to the table.”