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August 16, 2005
Crisis
Here are a few facts (at least I think they're facts; it's hard to tell):
1. The News-Examiner had an article 08/10/2005 entitled "New home growth explodes in Gallatin."
2. In that article, the reporter listed 2,042 homes, apartments and condos which are being planned or in the works.
3. Similar growth is taking place in Hendersonville, Westmoreland, White House and Portland. All you have to do is drive around; they are building everywhere.
4. There are children associated with new homes. I have no idea how many, but let's say 3,000 new students in Sumner County.
Now here are some more facts:
1. Sumner County schools are almost full.
2. Many (most?) schools already have portables.
3. Many of the schools that have portables are at capacity; there is no room for more portables. (In Portland, only Portland Middle School has more room for portables.)
4. There are no schools currently on the drawing board. There are plans like "we need a new elementary school in Portland," but nobody has even agreed upon a site.
5. It takes 2 to 3 years from initial design to opening day for a new school.
6. Sumner County Schools just had to cut their budget by $6 million last week. This includes cutting out about eight school buses.
So where does this leave us??????
The only conclusion I can draw from this is that very soon Sumner County will have more students than the schools can hold. This may happen in a year. I don't really know.
The situation is very similar to the cartoon above. The train is racing down the track, but it's about to slam into a brick wall. Growth in Sumner County has been phenominal, but where is the infrastructure (schools, water, sewer) to support the growth? We've got the train going 80 mph -- before we've dug the tunnel.
So what happens to the children when there are no schools?
I actually grew up in an area of Florida that was experiencing similar growth. The school system ran out of school space.
What the school board did was to pick a section of town and designate that section as the "mobile" part of the county. I lived in the mobile part of the county.
In the 6th grade, I went to school A.
In the 7th grade, I was bused to school B about 10 miles away because school B had some room.
In the 8th grade, I was bused to school C about 15 miles away because school B was full.
In the 9th grade, I was bused back to school B. However, school B was now on double shift it was so full. One group of kids went to school from 6:30 a.m. to noon. I was in the group that went from 1:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. It was pitch black dark when I got out of school. It took another hour on the bus, at which time it was almost time to have dinner and go to bed. Yuck.
In the second half of the 9th-grade school year, I was bused to a new school (school D), which just opened. We went back to single shift, but they were still working on the building much of the day. (When we first arrived, we had to sit on the floor because the desks had not come in yet.)
In the 10th grade, I was bused to school E where, fortunately, I got to stay for three years. A year later, they opened another high school. Fortunately, I missed the move to school F.
Conclusion
It looks to me like Sumner County Schools is going to be having a capacity crisis one day soon. The only options that I know of to fix this are 1) busing students far from home to fill up every possible seat in every school, 2) going double shift. Neither option looks too attractive to me. (What's going to happen if both parents work, and their elementary school child doesn't go to school until 1 p.m.? How much is it going to cost to bus children around with no new buses and planned ones cut from the budget, fuel at $2.50 or more per gallon and buses getting only 4-6 miles-per-gallon?, etc.)
The Sumner County Commission needs to address these issues and come up with a plan. They need to do this now. There is a tunnel about 10 feet ahead that hasn't been dug yet! Please discuss this with your commissioners, NOW!
Posted by admin at August 16, 2005 08:08 PM
Comments
I attended the spaghetti dinner and was pleasantly suprised by all the people there. It seemed to go very smoothly. Everyone did a great job and I'm glad so much money was raised. The spaghetti wasnt quite up to "my italian mother-in-law's " but it was still good! LOL
Posted by: jc at September 13, 2005 11:10 PM
I would just like to post a thank you to everyone from the Watt HArdison Pto.
THANK YOU!
WITH HEARTFELT GRATITUDE ,THE WATT HARDISON PTO WOULD LIKE TO THANK ALL THAT DENOTED THEIR TIME AND TALENT TO THE SUCCESS OF THE SPAGHETTI SUPPER/SILENT AUCTION. WE ARE HAPPY TO ANNOUNCE THAT OVER $3000.00 WAS MADE FROM THIS EVENT. MORE BUDGET INFO WILL BE COMING WHEN THE FUNDRAISER IS OVER. WE ARE TRULY BLESSED TO HAVE SUCH A WONDERFUL WATT HARDISON FAMILY. THANK YOU AGAIN FOR YOUR WILLINGNESS TO HELP, HAVING A HEART THAT CARES, AND SHARING OF YOUR TIME AND TALENTS.
THE WATT HARDISON PTO
Posted by: Christy Czuba at September 13, 2005 12:52 PM
Some kind of fall festival with a beer tent would be great sometime in mid-to-late October...I noticed on the Portlandtn site that Watt Hardison is having a spaghetti supper in Sept...I'll be there,as one of my grandsons goes to school there...
Posted by: gw at August 19, 2005 09:07 AM
Someone who might know better correct me if I am wrong...
I believe the money to pave roads comes from the Federal DOT and must be used for road maintenance. If it isn't used, the county loses the funds. Therefore, they pave perfectly good roads.
Posted by: mkl at August 19, 2005 06:30 AM
We definately need new schools here! I don't understand why we can't get new schools, but the county can pave roads that are in fine shape. Who budgets this money anyway? The children are the ones that suffer here, right along with the teachers who have over 25 kids in their classrooms. Someone really needs to take charge, and make our school situation much better!
Posted by: Lori at August 18, 2005 08:14 PM
I would be willing to help research options of fund raisers, talk to the schools to find out what is needed, get the ball rolling. I don't like fund raisers that go to buy folding chairs and wouldnt want to work my tail off to purchase those or something as equally silly (may not be silly to those that use the chairs, but I don't see how it impacts the children, unless the teachers use the folding chairs to bungee the kids to them to make 'em sit still :)
Is there some sort of fall event in Portland? I can't remember exactly. I know there's Strawberry Festival in the spring. And Red Ribbon week (when is that?). Maybe a fall festival - after it cools down a little.
If there's anybody who would like to discuss this or other ideas to raise funds (but I vote Beer Tent!) drop an email!
deep-south-ink@comcast.net
Posted by: mkl at August 18, 2005 06:39 PM
I think this is a fab idea! I dont think the town
would think the same. Think of the money that would bring in, Wow! I would support this and think it would be fun...
Posted by: lola at August 17, 2005 11:09 AM
I think they all sound like great ideas. Someone should take control, find a place, and get approval. You could also hold a craft sale or yard sale with all the proceeds going to Portland Schools. Back home we used to do a car wash, (kids included). They had an auction for Little League Baseball and dont know why we couldnt do the same thing. I would be willing to donate my time and anything else that was needed to see this through, and from what I've seen of Portland so far, I imagine many others would too.
Posted by: jc at August 17, 2005 10:48 AM
Sounds like a plan to me...i'm all for more traditional fundraisers, i.e. spaghetti suppers at the schools (they generate money, but also help the community get to know each other, vice selling things people don't really want for an unbelievably high price)...Richland Park is an ideal place to hold a festival, and if beer wouldn't work, try something else...and I like the idea of all the money going to the local schools...but I think community members, not just elected officials, should have some input (through town hall meetings, etc.) as to how it is spent...if I'm contributing $, whether it is via a beer tent or working to help with events,I want to have a say in how those $ are spent! Portland is small enough to stay in touch with community, but large enough to take advantage of the growth. Now is the time to put in place plans and events for a much larger city.
Posted by: gw at August 17, 2005 09:28 AM
How about raising our taxes? Seriously.
We have to generate funds somehow. Can't rely on big government to hand it over...they are busy in other places of the world, taking care of the problems of other countries.
Here's an attention grabber...
I recently visited the village I grew up in (Up North we call them that...) Every year the village holds a festival that runs for a mere two days. During the evenings, festival goers enjoy a BEER TENT. Yes, a beer tent. Money raised goes back to the COMMUNITY which includes several churches, local youth organizations, and YES...the community schools. I tried to do the math to figure out how much was raised. I gave up. A beer cost $3. A half gallon of beer cost $9. I would approximate that there were 500 people in the tent at any given time. I, as a very conservative consumer spent $6. My husband, not so conservative spent $15. My brother, a generous supporter of his community, spent $35. People would also enter the tent, enjoy a single beverage and then be on their merry way. Imagine how much was money was raised in a two day period. Judging from the jubilant crowd, I would estimate that everyone was spending $10-$20. You do the math.
My vote is to follow the lead of this little village and have a two day arts festival. Set up a beer tent and invite our neighboring towns to come visit. THEN, have the proceeds from this venture funneled into our LOCAL schools (why support Hendersonville, Gallatin, etc? They can do their own festival and invite us...)
So, do you think the City of Portland would issue a special beer permit? Wait...we have to sell food along with our drinks. Oh, and it can't be within 1000 feet of a church. I'll volunteer up to sell hot dogs for $5 a shot, but finding a location may just end this dream for me...
Posted by: mkl at August 16, 2005 10:20 PM