Mon
Jul 31 2006
06:59 pm
School Board meeting controversy?
By: Number9

There is talk of a surprise at the Knox County School Board meeting tonight. Supposedly Mayor Ragsdale has said that the new Hardin Valley High School must be built in phases with the first phase being 1,300 students. Cafeteria, gym, and auditorium will be constructed to hold 2,000.

The section for the other 700 students will not be constructed until the first phase has been built and this second phase will occur over an additional 3-5 years. Supposedly this is the only way to be able to afford athletic fields and little things like lockers, parking lots, indoor plumbing, and such.

This means that there will be no relief for the school overcrowding at Karns, Bearden, and Farragut until 2012 or later. To date not much more than some minor earth work has been attempted on the new school site. Wonder why no real work is going on?

We really got a lot of benefit out of that wheel tax didn't we? Remember in the election when Mayor Ragsdale said we hadn't had a property tax increase in 7 years? Next year will be the property tax. It will be for the children of course. Always is.

I guess now it doesn't seem like such a good idea to give Blount County 5 million dollars for an Business Park in Blount County does it?

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KnoxVol's picture

Mike Ragsdale needed an overflow budget for a crooked deal.

Submitted by KnoxVol on Mon, 2006/07/31 - 10:48pm.

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Number9 said "This means that there will be no relief for the school overcrowding at Karns, Bearden, and Farragut until 2012 or later."

A study that was done by the Knoxville/Knox County MPC says that Bearden can accommodate growth without overcrowding up to the year 2012

The Executive Summary of the MPC report says "Bearden High School is well-suited to accommodate enrollment increases over the next seven years. It will reach critical limits by 2012, and exceed capacity by 2013 if growth continues at its forecasted pace."

The MPC report also says "According to one growth scenario, West High School is equipped to handle enrollment growth for the next 10 years."

The report says that Farragut school is 298 students over capacity and that Karns is nearing capacity. Karns currently is at 98% capacity. Karns High School can enroll 31 more students without being overcrowded.

The report says that for the next ten (10) years that, with proper redistricting, there will be no overcrowding. (PDF file - requires download)
http://archive.knoxmpc.org/schools/ovcrowd/exec_sum.pdf

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Having said the above, the only reason that Mike Ragsdale had to have a tax increase in 2004 was because he and another crook, county commissioner John Griess, wanted to have an overflow budget so that they could have enough money to fund an industrial development bond issue for re-development of the Knox County Farmers' Market property.

The industrial development bond concept is intended for spurring economic development activity in depressed areas. The Knox County Farmers' Market (now Target) property is prime real estate - not an economically distressed property.

Griess' real estate firm, or the firm with which he is associated, Holrob Development was to be granted ownership of the Farmer's Market property and then be given - at the taxpayers' expense - money from the industrial development bond issue.

Word began to filter out so the deal fizzled out.

Here's a 2004 article from the MetroPulse.
http://www.metropulse.com/dir_zine/dir_2004/1433/t_ear.html

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You may remember when there was first discussion of the wheel tax in 2004 there was no mention of building a new high school (because one was not needed). The wheel tax was ostensibly for a new downtown library. When it became clear that the people did not want a downtown library (it's the tax that they didn't want) then Team Ragadale decided to start crowing for an new school.

Mike Ragsdale is not fit for public service.
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Talk Jeffersonian Democracy for Knoxville at The County Seat

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rikki's picture

real work

Submitted by rikki on Tue, 2006/08/01 - 10:41am.

Wonder why no real work is going on?

I'm sure the architects and site planners agree with your assessment of their efforts.

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