Superintendent Addresses Controversies

The Hamilton County School Superintendent speaks publicly for the first time about the school board retreat at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville and about the schools system's budget crises.

Shortly after Thursday's School Board meeting started the School Superintendent broke away from the set agenda to address several issues that started swirling earlier this week.

School Superintendent Jim Scales tells a packed room why he believes the school board needed to spend their yearly retreat at the luxurious Opryland Hotel this weekend. Scales says the retreat coincided with the state's leadership conference at the hotel and says that the majority of the expenses will be covered by private donations.

"There are few additional expenses that will have to be paid for by the district but they are in conjunction with the state convention," Scales says.

"We do not have to go to Nashville and have the retreat in conjunction with the convention, they sound like it has to be done that way, no it doesn't," School Board member Rhonda Thurman says.

Thurman believes the school board retreat should be held here in Chattanooga to save money and so that the meetings can be held in the public eye.

"They haven't wanted to media to be there is the reason they go so far away sometimes," Thurman says.

Scales also expressed disappointment in the fact that a list of schools that may close has been made public. As many as 11 schools, including Birchwood Elementary and

Harrison Elementary, could be shut down to save money.

"It is unfortunate that the discussion of school closings got into the media and a list of schools appeared in various media," Scales says.

And Scales says that's because he has not made any recommendations yet.

"I think that people need to understand what we're looking at and what we may have to do and what at least has been laid at the table so the communities will have a chance to get together and talk about what they need to do, it's there money, it's there right to know," Thurman says.

But Thurman admits some schools will have to close but not without first cutting the fat from other areas in the school system's budget.

"But I'm not going to vote for one school to close until I am assured that every position in this administration that can be eliminated, is eliminated," Thurman says.

The school board also has two new committees this year - they have an Ethics Committee and a Budget and Finance Committee which school board members say they hope can help create some solutions for the budget shortfall.