Members of the Transition Planning Commission spent Thursday finalizing a draft of a plan to merge the
The plan has many elements commissioners say will improve education in
The commissioners found efficiencies merging the central offices, they recommended closing more than 20 schools, and they decided to outsource both janitorial services and bus drivers, but they still did not have enough money to pay for all the things they wanted to do in the classroom. And the commission was not able to reduce class sizes to the levels many members wanted.
“I cannot go into Kroger and say, ‘I really want that steak, but I can only afford hamburger.’ And Kroger isn’t going to say, ‘Oh, well, here, let me give you the steak,” said commission member Katie Stanton.
The commission began its work months ago promising to create a “world-class school system” here in
“I think the plan is really good even with the reductions and I think it has the potential to really improve the education systems. I do think that it will not be a world-class system without additional money,”
Commissioner Fred Johnson said balancing the budget would have been morally repugnant.
“We have 10 guiding principals and one of them was, you know, the welfare of our students,” Johnson said, “In good conscience I will not say that it can be done with a balanced budget.”
“Our state, and even our local, has to decide what we want in our public education. And if we do want a world-class school district, then we may have to look at what we contribute to that, however, we made recommendations for modest investments of $15 million which I think will make a huge difference,” said chairwoman Barbara Prescott.
In the coming weeks the commission will present its plan to the state and the school board for approval. The chair of the financial services committee Stanley Cates will meet with Governor Bill Haslam on the June 20 to discuss increased funding for the merged district.