Hamilton County Commission -- budget hearing on Department of Education -- May 7, 2008

Hamilton County Commissioners this morning called for the school system to seriously consider building larger schools and consolidating empty buildings.

“You reduce costs if you reduce the number of schools. Has anyone considered that?” Commissioner John Allen Brooks asked during a presentation of the school system’s balanced budget for fiscal year 2009.

Hamilton County operates 12 elementary schools with a student population under 300, the school district’s Chief Financial Officer Tommy Kranz said today. Additionally, local schools hold an average of 513 students, the smallest number per building of any of the state’s five largest systems, he said.

School Superintendent Jim Scales said district administrators would consider larger schools in the future. A decision to have small schools in Hamilton County was made years ago, and a reversal of that choice would take between 10 and 20 years to make, he said.

“Small schools have a lot of heart,” he said. “But there’s not a lot of hard data that says a larger school is any less effective at educating students.”

Hamilton County will open the new Signal Mountain Middle-High School in August and another middle-high school in the East Brainerd area the following year.

For complete coverage, see tomorrow’s Times Free Press.

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