Roy Exum
It was towards the end of Thursday night’s meeting of the Hamilton County School Board when Lee McDade, who handles disciplinary problems for the school district, brought up a last-minute appeal by a student who will not get to “walk” at graduation next week because the boy genius just showed up at school “under the influence.”
The Department of Education has a zero-tolerance rule that specifically states that if a student shows up at school with drugs, the errant child shall be suspended for the remainder of the year. But because the child’s grandmother is sick, among other things, the board was asked to cave in and toss discipline to the curb.
The HCDE has already given Mr. Illegal Chemistry a break, ruling that instead of waiting until this time next year to receive his diploma, he will still be able to receive it this spring (in the mail or whatever) and, hopefully, enroll in some type of post-secondary educational or technical program. But in the most mystifying, exasperating moment of the night, the board’s two black members voted that, yes indeed, our learning-under-the-influence champion should walk with his classmates.
George Ricks, who has repeatedly reiterated he “just wants us all to love each other,” said he wanted to support the Department of Education “but I did things when I was young when all I needed was a second chance,” which is perfectly noble but sends a message to 42,000 kids that zero-tolerance doesn’t count if grandmother is sick, if every other child in the system heeds the rule, or if you have an “In” on the school board. Please, this is where we are!
Far worse was board member Karitsa Mosley, who tried to pass a technicality of sorts saying the druggie didn’t have any drugs on his person. Are you kidding me – it doesn’t make any difference if he didn’t have drugs on him -- if he had drugs inside him! Mosley has a chance to be a bright star on the school board but, brother, “the wheel may be still spinning but the hamster is long gone.”
I’ve never sat through 15 minutes of worse tom-foolery in my life.
Oh, the majority of the board kept its sanity, voting 7-2 in favor of the HCDE standards instead of the moron who came to school blitzed and the best news of the night was that the board agreed to accept proposals from various talent hunters as it begins to study a permanent replacement for the superintendent. Kirk Kelly, the interim superintendent, could be voted as the permanent, at the whim of Riggs, Mosley and three former educators who obviously favor their ties with the Rick Smith crowd.
The board voted to take $913,600 out of reserves for football stadiums but then, somewhat maddeningly, agreed to send Kelly back to the County Commission to ask for “matching funds” with the school board to repair a fraction of the needs of the 79 schools in the district. What! We’ve got 60 percent of third graders not reading at grade level and Kirk thinks he can appeal to the County Commission? He’d fare much better training wild lions!
Kelly was just denied a $22.4 million budget increase earlier this week and – this I know – the County Commission’s purse strings will stay tight until the school board members rebuild trust and accountability. I promise you, there is a huge void right now between the commission and the school board. Holy, holy … it is a chasm!
Sewer problems, rodents, air conditioners that don’t work, sadly underfunded classroom supplies, school bus routes that take over an hour in each direction … there is no question the previous school board administrations – most notably the last – have allowed our schools to deteriorate horribly. There is no way the school board can fix all that needs to be done but there is said to be little leeway in County Mayor Jim Coppinger’s proposed budget that he will present to the commission in June.
Call me an Einstein but the obvious answer is for the school board, considered haughty by the Chattanooga 2.0 proponents and downright arrogant by the county commissioners, to come up with a hefty olive branch where community foundations, large and small businesses, city government and many more resources can be begged – down on your knees -- into play.
The school board has staunchly told all outside interests to “stay in their own lane,” that “we will decide the next superintendent, not them!” Well, Rev. Steve Highlander, whose brother is a leader in the teacher’s union, said last night he will gladly and openly listen to what anybody has to say “but we were elected to make decisions concerning the schools. That is our job.”
It wasn’t two meetings ago where Rev. Highlander soundly bashed Chattanooga 2.0 leader Jared Bigham, using his school board seat as a quite-unnecessary “bully chair,” and until the school board can come to grips with the idea this is about “us,” not “we,” I fear the children in our district will continue to bear the spoils of political and personal repercussions.
Please, do not lose sight of the fact the night began in glory, with bright-eyed ROTC cadets, registered nursing assistants from Hixson, and a parade of under-heralded achievers who prove the weeds in the system, like graduate-under-the-influence, will never outnumber the dazzling young people who will graduate from our county high schools next week.
The 2.0 reports showed that 65 percent of HCDE graduates must take remedial classes at Chattanooga State before beginning the curriculum. What does that tell us about this year’s class? As long as we allow two school board members to counter a most-lenient HCDE authority, where the rules must always matter, the voters must be decisive in the August election because in order for this to change, the board must be forced to change. Vote wisely. It is now the only chance we’ve got.
royexum@aol.com