I was traveling on business the later part of this week, so I am a few days late on posting about the Knox County School Board Capital Plan that was approved, on Wednesday. As I wrote late last week, this approved plan was the Superintendent’s recommended plan but now that a majority of the board approved it, it is now the boards plan. As I also wrote last week, it appeared to me then that it was designed to get at least 5 votes and that it did.
Now, let’s look at what happened. Pond Gap was pulled out of the capital plan, in my opinion, they will come back in a year or so.
Carter Elementary School, the residents of Carter are furious and they have every right to be mad. That community was used for the benefit of re-electing their school board member, Jim Williams.
When Jim Williams was elected to the board in 2000, there was and still remains a large tract of land that was purchased for the purpose of a Gibbs Middle School. The middle school students at Gibbs are bused 30 – 45 minutes each way to the inner-city Holston Middle School. In 2002 or 2003 the school board voted to renovate and expand Holston Middle School, I said then that the board should be honest with the community and acknowledge there will be no Gibbs Middle School. Diane Dozier the seventh district school board member has been making comments that she wants that land for a new Adrian Burnett Elementary School. That is the wrong thing to do as it puts Adrian Burnett to close to Gibbs Elementary and the bus travel over the ridge to the site would be cost prohibitive.
So then in 2003, the school board purchased land on Strawplains Pike for a new Carter Elementary, Jim Williams was re-elected because Gibbs Elementary was beginning to start construction, he was still saying they would build a middle school on Tazewell Pike and he was saying there would be a Carter Elementary on Strawplains Pike. On March 1, 2006 the Carter Elementary project was pulled and the Carter community now will receive a gymnasium and cafeteria.
It was all a political ploy.
To the people of Carter, I feel for you and hate it for you. This is Jim Williams.
I believe the Knox County Mayor, Knox County Commission and Knox County School Board should acknowledge that the two pieces of land, one at Tazewell Pike and the other at Strawplains Pike will never be used for building any schools and they need to sell the properties to use the proceeds from those sales to purchase land in areas where they intend to build new schools.
