Here We Are Again
After more than a decade of debate and several years of actual work, Jefferson County can see the light at the end of the tunnel in regard to the school building program. Oh, I know what some are thinking. Yes, we are still renovating Jefferson County High School and Building 8 repair and renovation are no where near complete. But, in the grander picture, we are on the slow slide home. This building program has been a rough ride for the County and sparked,if not a full fledged civil war, at the very least some bloody skirmishes. We are broke. We are bruised and we are just now beginning to communicate with anything other than angry tones and finger gestures. The use the “O” word now is almost heinous. It is the word that must not be spoken. And yet, it was clearly not only spoken, but discussed, in last week’s school board meeting.
I will write in in hushed script, so as to not anger the masses. We are(gulp)overcrowded. Yes. After more than $50 million dollars of debt and countless hours of squabbling over everything from bricks to building plans we are again, still, unbelievably overcrowded. “Is it true?” you say. “How can that be?” some ask. It is sadly true. And it can be because the face of this County has changed but the willingness to change has not. We still cling to what and where we were, rather than facing and dealing with what we have become. Our small communities that thrived twenty or thirty years ago are bursting at the seams and it is time that we face the fact that we must embrace, or at least not fight, change if we hope to move together.
It is not a surprise that White Pine School is in the most dire need of space. They sat it out in the last renovation and the result is 8 portable classrooms and converting the janitor’s closet to find space. Why did they sit it out? Mainly because the community did not want to divide White Pine School, which is currently K-8, and the political powers that be couldn’t or didn’t stand up to the heat. I, too, come from a small community and understand the desire to want to maintain that unity. The fact is that every section of Jefferson County, be it Dandridge, Jefferson City, Talbott, Piedmont, New Market, Rush Strong or White Pine, is a small community. When I was in school, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, Chestnut Hill and Swanslyvania had their own elementary schools. Those were absorbed into Dandridge during the building program of the 1990’s. Certainly, it was tough to start with but children change and adjust-and so do adults. It is just a part of life.
Some have suggested just building on to White Pine School, which currently has 835 students. The White Pine area of the County is still growing. Unlike Dandridge Elementary or Piedmont Elementary where the price and availability of property has made it unpalatable for young families, White Pine continues to attract new students. Rather than splitting the school and dividing the community, perhaps it would be best to consider moving the 6-8 th grades to their own middle school. The majority of the students in Jefferson County attend a separate school for those pre high school years and this would be in keeping with the county’s current structure. Jefferson Middle School has an enrollment of a little more than 600 students and is at capacity. It currently absorbs students from New Market and Talbott Elementary Schools. If the 100 plus middle school students from the Talbott area were to combine with the middles school ages students from White Pine, the school would be large enough to be viable. It would also alleviate the pressure on Jefferson Middle School.
I am not really interested in a new building program. But if one must be done then it should not be a fly by our pants endeavor. This issue should have been addressed at the onset of this building program. We should have assessed where our growth has been and where it will be instead of blindly incurring debt. Additionally, our funding body should be willing to hear reason and think beyond today’s bottom line to protect our fiscal future. When everyone screams, no one can be heard.
We sit broke. Busted. And overcrowded. Something isn’t working here. But, our children should not pay the price in the classroom or with their fiscal security because we simply can’t get our act together. So far we are the third time up and batting zero. We need to step up and be adults. We all want what we want but our needs must come first and sometimes that means hard decisions. We can not afford continuous multi million dollar building programs and we cannot afford to sacrifice one more building, asset, to destruction via poor decision making. But, we must never forget that our children are our greatest asset and our legacy. What do we do? Which way do we go? I just can’t believe that after ten years of blood, sweat and tears we are still standing here. Like a dog chasing its tail. In the middle of the street. With a semi truck speeding downhill. Buckle up spanky, it looks like its gonna be a rough ride.
