Monday evening at Amherst Elementary Dr. James P. McIntyre, Jr. held a Community Forum to discuss the budget recommendation he has submitted to the School Board. Without a possible cut to a program called AVID, a need for a new middle school in the exploded growth of Hardin Valley and a handful of disgruntled Gibbs citizens it would have been all school employees.
A student makes his case for AVID
Many students made their case successfully (in my opinion) for a continuation of the AVID program. A cost of $280,000 a year. It is a program that in the past was funded by the Great Schools Partnership, however, they are unable to fund it in FY 2016 and for it to continue will have to come out of the schools General Purpose School Budget.
Teacher salary increases were advocated by the KCEA President Tanya Coates. She represented the classified staff well at the forum.
KCEA President Tanya Coates listening to Dr. James P. McIntyre, Jr. respond to her questions about teacher salaries.
Several School Board Members were present, Patty Bounds, Amber Rountree, Gloria Deathridge, Terry Hill and Mike McMillan. A few County Commissioners were present. Led by Commission Chairman Brad Anders were Dave Wright, John Schoonmaker and Jeff Ownby. Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett was a no show as well as any member of his staff.
Commission Chairman Brad Anders and other Commissioners were present to hear from their constituents.
Several Hardin Valley parents were present to make their case for a Middle School in the Capital Budget. The Capital Budget is seperate from the General Purpose School Budget. With the continued explosive growth in the Hardin Valley community and the occupancy of the Hardin Valley Elementary and Hardin Valley Academy High School a middle school is needed. With the continued residential construction going on in Hardin Valley over the next two years an additional 600 students will embark on the Hardin Vallley area schools.
A Hardin Valley Consituent, Taxpayer discusses the need for a Hardin Valley Middle School.
A handful of Gibbs community members attended making their case for a new middle school. Around 1992, the Gibbs middle school age students have attended Holston Middle School. During that time, a couple of school board members from the Gibbs area have raised the issue of a Gibbs Middle School with no success. In 2003, the Knox County School Board spent millions of dollars to renovate and expand Holston Middle to accommodate the growth of Gibbs. At the same time building a Gibbs Elementary School. The citizens at that time, did not object to the expansion of Holston to accommodate their growth. The area is no where near adding the number of students that Hardin Vallet will add. Knox County has already experimented with the concept of build it, they will come with Carter Elementary and they are not coming like the dream was foretold.
The recent third party, independent middle school study that the school district commissioned says that students in South Knoxville and in Northwest Knox County (Karns) are on buses as long and in some cases longer than the commute from Gibbs to Holston. Building a middle school for Gibbs is a waste of county resources, in my opinion.
Dr. James P. McIntyre, Jr. concluding the FY 2016 budget discussion community forum.
