October 10, 2004
By Beverly A. Carroll - Staff Writer
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Plans to expand East Ridge High School's construction career academy were shelved this year after schools officials' bid for additional funding for staffing and facilities improvements failed.
'We were going to expand it from the 11th and 12th grades to include the 10th grade,' East Ridge principal Cheri Dedmon said. 'We were supposed to get a chemistry lab and an additional teacher. We didn't, so the plans are on hold.'
East Ridge is one of 17 Hamilton County high schools participating in reform supported by an $8 million grant from the Carnegie Corp. of New York.
The grant, administered by the Public Education Foundation, which is raising a matching $6 million, cannot be used to hire teachers or pay for facilities improvements. Carnegie officials want educators to use the money for planning and training for programs that would change the way high schools operate.
Now, schools officials said they are concerned the lack of local dollars ultimately will endanger the grant and derail plans to reform all high schools.
Bill Kennedy, who works for the Public Education Foundation as the coordinator of the Carnegie effort, said Carnegie officials know Hamilton County did not get additional local money this year.
'They are aware and they are concerned,' he said. 'But they are still supportive of the work going oil We hope that we can get past this (funding) crisis.'
Mr. Kennedy said the Carnegie program understands that different schools are progressing at different rates.
Career academies, which fuse academics with work and technology classes, are the centerpiece of Hamilton County's high school reform plan. The program is in its third year, and each of the 17 schools is at a different level of development.
County Commissioners Curtis Adams and Fred Skillem have said the high school reform program is an example of a grant that creates programs that have to be paid for with local dollars after the grants expire. School board member Joe Conner, however, called critics out of touch with today's educational demands.
'Look at our dropout rate. Look at the number of ninth-graders that make it to graduation in four years,' Mr. Conner said.
In June, county commissioners voted 5-4 against, a property tax hike that would have raised $20 million in additional school funding. School board members cut $21 million from this year's budget request, which included $1.5 million for additional teachers and facility improvements to support high school reform.
'We first asked for 17 teachers, but then we scaled it down to 12,' said associate superintendent of secondary education Sheila Young. 'We took the priority list of schools that were really moving along and needed more staff to keep the momentum. We got nothing.'
Central High School principal David Cowan said his school has decided not to offer advanced courses in its business and sciences academies to seniors.
'We decided to focus on the students who already have two years in the academies,' Mr. Cowan said. 'We were supposed to get three additional teachers.
We didn't, and we also lost one teacher (from budget cuts), so we are really down four instructors.'
Educators at schools where academies are in place said the academies tie school to the work world, making school relevant for students.
'Research shows students learn better through hands-on experiences,' Ms. Dedmon said. 'If we had the funds, we would train all of our teachers to use the method our construction academy teachers are using.'
The diversity in the high schools was one of the criteria that won .the Carnegie grant for the district, one of seven selected across the country, schools superintendent Jesse Register said.
'We have large and small high schools, and urban and rural schools,' Dr. Register said. 'During the year of planning, each school developed a plan unique to its student population and community.'
Schools such as East Ridge, Central, Red Bank and Brainerd have academies up and running. Ooltewah and Soddy-Daisy have begun implementing programs while Hixson and Howard high schools are in the planning stages.
At the county's five magnet high schools, federal funds separate from the Carnegie grant are used to create career academies. Howard School of Academics and Technology is one of three high schools that recently received a federal magnet school grant.
School officials will combine the federal grant money with the Carnegie money to begin a construction and a health sciences academy. Principal Elaine Swafford said. The career academies will take the place of former vocational programs, she said.
E-mail Beverly A Carroll at bcarroll@timesfreepress.com