Superintendent Justin Robertson told Hamilton County school board members Monday that the district plans to schedule community meetings to discuss the possibility of moving Orchard Knob Middle to The Howard School’s campus.
Under the proposal, Orchard Knob Middle would be relocated in August 2027 to the former site of Howard Connect Academy, a no-zone magnet school that shared a campus with Howard.
The school board member who represents Orchard Knob Middle, Jackie Anderson-Thomas, D-Chattanooga, said she was in total opposition to the proposed move.
“When concerns get expressed about a school that has been neglected for so long and the resolution is to move them out of their district, I just think it’s shameful,” she said at Monday’s facilities committee meeting. “At least the community will get to voice their opinion, but the timeliness of it, the quickness of it, is a concern for me and just the fact of moving people out of their district.”
Orchard Knob Middle is in District 4, which represents the downtown Chattanooga area. The Howard School is in District 11, which includes the Tiftonia, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge areas.