Category: Local Politics

I am at a client location so I cannot confirm the information but someone was just asking me for details about the governor stepping up this morning to offer another solution regarding rezoning. Has anyone heard anything similar? Perhaps the person asking the question munged a couple of unrelated news stories.

With the vote on the Knox County School Rezoning quickly approaching, and with the board on the fence between a yes and a no vote, the acting superintendent has begun trying to sway public opinion.

Mullins says he’s recommending that some siblings of high school students who would be grandfathered in at their current school … Students in the Crestwood Hills Subdivision could choose to attend either Hardin Valley or Bearden. The Holston Hills subdivision will remain zoned to Carter…[Source]

We have to remember that this rezoning plan is flawed on a whole. If suddenly, your neighborhood is not impacted, the plan is still flawed and the board needs to hear concern from your non-impacted neighborhood that your concern extends to the entire county and the board should vote no to this plan! Grandfathering siblings is purely a bribe. As time passes, and the younger children’s friends go off to a different high school, and the parents realize transporting their child to school everyday is unfavorable, they will concede to the rezoning in apathy forgetting the issues of safety and illogic which occurred with a yes vote.

The plan in its current form must be rejected! A new plan developed committee must be formed. Vote NO!

Update: See comments here.

In the comment thread at No Silence Here, I was asked to justify one of my statements.

Doug, you say that “it makes no sense to bus us twice the distance when an equal number of students are being bused the other direction.” How do you know that the number of West-to-Bearden students is the same as the Bearden-to-West students? I didn’t know that data was available. … please don’t fabricate data to support your point. [Source]

My reply was spam filtered but should be visible now. This was my reply.

…Yesterday with the site overwhelmed, I was only able to pull up the Master Map and had to guess the number of houses in the rezone since the numbers do not seem to be released. It certainly would be nice to look at the numbers as well as the socio-economic demographics.

Counting plots on the West to Bearden map (and my eyes may be crossing at this early morning time) numbers at roughly 275 potential houses. Naturally, not all of those will have children but for the purposes of zoning it should be assumed that they all could provide children.

I won’t bother counting plots on the Bearden to West map because my neighborhood alone is 120 some odd houses.

I am not fabricating data but interpreting what has been provided. Mullins needs to provide more data and better explain the moves. Tell you what. Let’s not move those West students to Bearden…I guessed 275 houses. And then not move my neighborhood plus some from Bearden to West. Selfish? Yes! Why disrupt families and possibly property values by just moving eggs from one basket to another? Zone the newly developing neighborhoods (and we see them all over the place) into the schools to create the balance of students rather than disrupting existing neighborhood zones.

I have spent the better part of decade committing myself to an elementary school, a middle school, and a high school. I have established relationships with teachers and principals. I have volunteered time and self into helping those schools evolve into the system I wanted my children educated within. I have had one on one discussions with Lindsey to correct problems (one such problem took 3 years to resolve). Now, I have to start over again and I do not see a good reason for it.

West may be a great school. What makes a school successful is the community that feeds it and the attitude and efforts of its staff. If the community is aggressive in supporting the school, such as Rocky Hill Elementary, then the school will be phenomenal. I do not know the West community and staff but am familiar enough with the school to be very dejected. This dishevel feels comparable to moving into a new city but not having the luxury of evaluating the neighborhood I have moved into.

This plan is flawed and needs to be voted down.

With the bad news that we are being rezoned for West High School, I thought I should look for some positive information about the school. Apparently, the D.A.R.E. program gives the students beer and cigarettes so after a hard day of work I should be able to ask my daughter to pass me a smoke and a brewsky. And before someone asks, why is it bad? I have spent the better part of a decade being involved in Rocky Hill, Bearden Middle, and Bearden High. On one issue, I was on the phone regularly for 3 years including one on one chats with Lindsey to solve the problem. I have a vested interested in the school. And I feel strongly that this upheaval is socio-economic and not about overcrowding.