There are reminders here of a line in the movie “The Candidate,” in which Robert Redford comes from behind to win a U.S. Senate seat. He escapes from his victory party only to ask, “What do we do now?”

The redevelopment of Chattanooga was the first in a long, arduous series of steps to attract a major manufacturer.

The euphoria of winning the big prize from Volkswagen, the latest North American assembly plant and the myriad of attachments that come with it, is still making its way throughout the region. Local officials in Southeast Tennessee and Northwest Georgia counties that form a doughnut around Chattanooga are busily putting together business plans to secure some of the suppliers expected to support the VW production facility at Enterprise South.

As the meetings are held and the expectations of new businesses and jobs discussed, a realistic starting point may be to construct a short list of dos along with some don’ts.

There are numerous examples to emulate and a few to avoid.

With the number of automobile manufacturers that now dot both metropolitan and rural areas in the Southern states, there are questions to ask and, it is hoped, a lot of ideas to hear.

Local leaders should inquire as to the community impact resulting from the influx of a major manufacturer, dozens of suppliers and a host of new residents. Is the infrastructure already stretched, and is the community prepared to handle potentially 16,000 employees and their families?

During recent editorial boards for Hamilton County school board candidates, the questions moved from whether the contract for the superintendent should have been approved in advance of the election to an issue the school system has not faced in more than a decade: growth in the student population.

The strategic plan developed in the first year of Superintendent Jim Scales’ tenure is virtually obsolete since it was based on declining student enrollment. The question of closing schools, which was at the top of minds only four weeks earlier, now fades somewhat, with concerns rising about having enough room for more children in public schools in certain pockets of the county.

County Mayor Claude Ramsey raised the public education issue within days of the Volkswagen announcement. He challenged the community to decide whether providing a high-quality education was now a prerequisite for assuring good jobs for local people.

Volkswagen’s decision to locate its manufacturing facility here opens opportunities and raises some challenges. Plotting the influx of students and the facilities, teachers and educational materials to support them is much different from posting every check written by the school administration on the Internet. The nine members of the school board, some of whom will be elected Aug. 5, should hold a joint meeting with the nine-member Hamilton County Commission and begin a cooperative effort to outline the direction and funding of the public schools.

The aggressive timeline that is being pushed by Volkswagen to start manufacturing automobiles in early 2011 gives local officials less than three years to be ready to educate a large, more diverse public school population.

This is but one of the realities that flow from the euphoria that is Volkswagen in the community.

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