Indya, on behalf of the smattering of Powell-zoned families who (for the moment)live in your 2nd District, thanks for your very prompt and proactive approach to soliciting public comment on the rezoning plan. I'll help start spreading a link to your invitation tonight.

I only hope every other school board member acts so quickly and with as much caring to include constituents in a close study of these many maps.

The proposed rezoning from Carter to Austin-East simply will not fly. It breaks up the 80-year-old Holston Hills neighborhood into 2 districts. It also puts many students who are now going to Sunnyview Primary, Chilhowee Intermediate. & even Carter Middle into Austin-East High. That is simply unacceptable to the families in Holston Hills & Chilhowee Hills. That part of the rezoning must be nixed or there will be a big outcry. I could've seen "Q" doing this, but not Mullins. That is a big mistake on his part & it will be an even bigger mistake if the board tries to ratify it as is. The Holston Heights part of the plan would be fine. The rest of it will not work at all. As long as the line is redrawn to west of West Sunset, that will work. As a lifelong resident of Holston Hills, I can tell you that no one in this area will stand for it as proposed. If anyone in this area wants to go to A-E, they can still easily do so through the majority-to-minority transfer requests that are routinely approved. Surely both school board members Jim Williams & Sam Anderson, who live in the areas, will agree with me on this. Similarly, the changes from both Fulton & Gibbs to Austin-East need to be changed to Carter instead, if they are to be moved at all. Those were the natural areas that fed Holston in the past from Spring Hill Elementary & should now go to Carter, if they are to be moved at all from either Fulton or Gibbs. It is most likely inadvisable to move the area around Spring Hill from Fulton at all, & the better choice would be to move them to the Gibbs zone rather than A-E. Those in the Gibbs zone in Chilhowee Hills, if they are to be moved, should also go to Carter, rather than A-E.

Rachel, when parents choose to buy a house, they choose it largely based on the community schools.

Ms. Kincannon,

Thank you for taking an "open-minded" approach to this situation and suggesting a public meeting. The people of this county are fighting mad over these changes and something needs to be done before a May 2nd vote changes the lives of practically every family in Knox County. The residents of the Powell community are convinced that an alternative plan can be reached, but time is needed to make that happen. This is not fixable in 3 weeks' time.

Basically, the school board is going to devalue the property of everyone in Holston Hills, Chilhowee Hills, & the Spring Hill area. All of the white families in those areas will simply sell their homes & move out of the neighborhood before they send their kids to A-E. Homes will be dumped on the market for whatever they will sell for over the next 2 years & people will move into the county so that their children can go to Carter or Gibbs or even Fulton, where they have gone in the past. This decision, if it stands, will change all of the demographics in those neighborhoods. The school board would NEVER consider doing this to Sequoyah Hills, but Holston Hills has no effective representation in government. Since A-E is a magnet school & any child countywide can go there, why should it even have a zone at all? The city just spent $400,000 of taxpayer dollars rebuilding a sidewalk from Holston Hills & Chilhowee Hills to Holston Middle School. Guess what? Not one student will be walking from those neighborhoods to that school, since they will have been zoned to go elsewhere. Does it make any sense that kids go to Sunnyview Primary, then Chilhowee Intermediate, then Carter Middle, then A-E High? This is forced busing. There will be buses all over the Holston Hills area going in all different directions every day. No community has been treated so shabbily. Where is Town Hall East when you need them? This isn't a racial issue at all. It's simply a matter of practical common sense & reality. Parents are simply NOT going to send their kids to A-E, no matter what the school board dictates. They will put them in private Christian schools such as Berean before that will happen. The school board will be cutting their nose off to spite their face & causing our schools to lose federal tax dollars by declining enrollment if they make this ill-advised move.

In my pollyannaish world view I'd like to see concerned parents like Mr Volunteer step in and fight to improve A E. There are cases out there where schools have done well in underperforming neighborhoods. I'd like to see our school board and community really focus on improving A E rather than leaving it in the dust.

This is a sprawl issue as well. In the neighborhoods around A E there are hundreds of vacant homes and even more empty lots. Think of the money that could be saved on infrastructure if those could be considered an attractive place for families to live.

___________________________________
Less is the new More - Karrie Jacobs

Tamara,

I think you expressed the feelings of many people with your remarks. Schools should be good everywhere in the county and community is personal passion.

Rachel,

A reporter just asked me a similar question. Why should anyone care who is not in your backyard? My response is that this can happen to anyone. We as a county have to start asking where are the kids going to go to school when we develop new areas. Our government has to respect existing commuinities all around the county. Communities support schools. Better schools = better quality of life.

I'm sure I will get quoted saying something less important.

I was just glancing through the KNS and noticed today's full page installment of their Academic Achievement awards for some area high schools.

Not to take anything away from their impressive achievements, but among the twenty photos of Brittneys, Calebs, and Heathers there was not one person of color.

Not sure if that's relevant to this and other discussions about school zoning, but it seems like it might be.

I may be wrong, but I think that they are showcasing the students from various schools on different days. Today's edition may not have any minority students, but the whole group would look different if all pictured together.

Isn't A-E near the failed Five Points grocery/retail complex? No doubt that investment would and should have benefitted the entire area surrounding it including the school. Maybe sometimes the direct infusion of such funds would indeed be better if channelled directly to the school. Perhaps then it could resonate outward and spur community involvement, growth, and pride.

Yes, I understand that. Today was Gatlinburg-Pittman, Gibbs, Grace Christian, Greenback, and Halls. Looks like they're going in alphabetical order. I guess I missed A-E?

But you would think that with a statewide black population of 16% there'd be 3.2 photos of African-American students out of the 20, statistically speaking.

(I realize the percentage is somewhat lower here in East TN.)

Many people bought their homes in reliance on the existing school districts and are outraged by this new proposed rezoning. They will never send their kids to Austin-East, which they view as unsafe, since there has been gunfire at some of their athletic events recently. They are right to worry, of course.

This is the worse thing to hit Holston Hills since Saroff Realty started blockbusting the neighborhood back in the 1960's. Holston Hills is the best integrated neighborhood in Knoxville, but it will implode if this school rezoning is approved by the board. People value their kids’ education too much. They will uproot and move to assure it. This can only be viewed as a negative thrust to Holston Hills, Chilhowee Hills, & Spring Hill, academically and in property values. It would never be allowed to happen in Fountain City, Halls, Sequoyah Hills, Farragut, Karns, etc.

Having listened to school board chairman Sam Anderson speak in the past, he may see this as a “tool” to supposedly "improve" Austin East. He has spoken about socio-economics as being a determinant of better education, such as putting kids who are from families who care what happens to them in their schools raise the education quality. Unfortunately, Sam seems to be willing to divide and sacrifice one of Knoxville's best & most cherished neighborhoods to try to better his pet school.

Even if you could fix Austin-East, which is doubtful, it won’t happen overnight and parents will not sacrifice their kids for some academic ideal or objective. A-E already has the most enriched curriculum in the county, yet virtually no one wants to go there. In fact, many minorities who live within a few blocks of it routinely take advantage of the transfer rules & have "free" taxpayer-provided transportation, including daily cab rides, to high schools in other districts across the county, because even they don't want to go there.

Recall that some 10-15 years ago, the black community refused to close Austin-East and build and attend a new super high school because they wanted their neighborhood school preserved. That is their right, of course, to want to keep it, but they should not be able destroy another neighborhood to accomplish that. It is already a magnet high school. Anyone in the entire county can attend it & receive transportation to it. The fact is that fewer people want to send their kids there & fewer want to live in the area around it.

Perhaps it is finally time to close A-E & rezone those students to Fulton, Carter, Gibbs, West, & South-Doyle, the high schools that surround it. That would be far preferable to what is being proposed now, & those who live in the A-E zone would probably welcome it as much as anyone. It might actually have the effect of improving the neighborhood around the school, too, converting it into a community center or for other worthwhile uses.

I feel for you Tamara. I hope you can gather a large group of Karns High parents to create a dialogue with Knox County Schools. Surely this can be worked out.

Tamara,
I'd venture to say that the Bearden and West communities have been pulled into this just as the Powell community has and all are being wrongly cut up by this. If one compares the proposed zoning for HVHS in December and now this completely different rezoning - the difference is startling. And hurtful to communities - communities that have identities. And if the plan is to vote on it by May 2, it appears to be pretty much a done deal. Which is even more depressing

From
WBIR.COM

"Board members say they did not draw the lines for the new zones. The Knox County Zoning and Transportation Department consulted with the Metropolitan Planning Commission to come up with the proposal."

From their website (emphasis mine):

"The Metropolitan Planning Commission (MPC) was established in 1956 by Knoxville and Knox County as the agency responsible for comprehensive county-wide planning and administration of zoning and land subdivision regulations and remains so today, except for the town of Farragut."

Well, board members certainly have the power to change those lines created by the zoning and transporation dept with the MPC

So far, I have the following mtg dates. If I have missed any, please let me know.

1) Wednesday April 18th, the Large Assembly room at the City County Building Downtown, is the Board of Education regular meeting, at 5:00 PM, at which Interim Superintendent Roy Mullins, is scheduled to present the Re-Zoning plan to the entire School Board. There is no public forum time scheduled for this meeting.

2) Thursday April 19th, at 7:00 PM, Roy Mullins (who has already said that everyone will get over it after the vote passes) will be speaking to parents of affected children who would be moved from Bearden to West, at Bearden High School.

3) Thursday April 25th, at 7:00 PM, Indya Kincannon will speak to parents at Fulton High.

4) Monday, April 30th, at 5:00 PM, at the Large assembly Room at the City County Building Downtown. This meeting is when the School Board will discuss the new plan during their regular meeting. There is a public forum scheduled for this meeting. Contact Janice Myers to book a space to speak at myersj6@k12tn.net .

5) Wednesday, May 2, at 5:00 PM, the Large assembly Room at the City County Building Downtown. This meeting is when the School Board will vote on the new plan during their regular meeting. There is a public forum scheduled for this meeting. Contact Janice Myers to book a space to speak at myersj6@k12tn.net .

I believe several School Board members are holding community forums in their districts. The ones I know of are as follows: Rex Stooksbury is holding a meeting at Powell HS on 4/24, 6:30pm. Karen Carson and Dan Murphy are both holding forums on 4/19, I think at Bearden and West High Schools.

Indya Kincannon

THE SUBJECT OF REZONING HAS CONSUMED MOST OF THE COUNTY FOR MOST OF THE PAST WEEK INCLUDING MYSELF. I HAVE FOUND MYSELF CALLING SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS, NEIGHBORS, AND OTHERS THAT I WOULD HAVE NEVER CONSIDERED CALLING BEFORE. ALL IN THE HOPES THAT THE SCHOOL BOARD MIGHT ACTUALLY LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE THAT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE REPRESENTING.

SOME PEOPLE MAY OR MAY NOT CARE ABOUT WHERE THEIR KIDS GO TO SCHOOL BUT I DO.

I LIVE ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE POWELL SCHOOL ZONE AND HAVE FOR NINE YEARS. MY WIFE AND MYSELF MOVED HERE WITH HOPES OF BOTH OF OUR DAUGHTERS ATTENDING POWELL SCHOOLS. BUT IT APPEARS THAT SOME PEOPLE WOULD LIKE TO PULL THAT DECISION AWAY FROM US AND SEND OUR CHILDREN THROUGH ANOTHER SCHOOL ZONE (HALLS) TO GET TO CENTRAL. THIS SEEMS UNACCEPTABLE TO ME WHEN WE LIVE JUST 3.9 MILES AWAY FROM POWELL HIGH SCHOOL AND 6-7 MILES AWAY FROM CENTRAL. AT THE SAME TIME BRINGING STUDENTS FROM THE NORWOOD AREA NOW ZONED FOR CENTRAL UP TO 8-MILES AWAY TO POWELL. I CALLED KCS TO FIND OUT WHY THIS WAS PROPOSED AND THEY SAID IT WAS A TRANSPORTATION ISSUE. ALSO ON THE OTHER SIDE OF CLINTON HIGHWAY THEY WANT TO TAKE ANOTHER GROUP OF STUDENTS FROM POWELL TO KARNS HIGH SCHOOL. I HAVE NOT DONE THE MATH BUT I AM CERTAIN THEY ARE CLOSER TO POWELL THAN KARNS. IS THIS ALSO A TRANSPORTATION ISSUE OR TO FILL UP KARNS FROM THE DEPARTURE OF AROUND 1,000 STUDENTS TO THE NEW HARDIN VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL.

I THOUGHT THIS NEW HIGH SCHOOL WAS TO TAKE CARE OF OVER CROWDING AT THE WEST KNOX COUNTY SCHOOLS. NOT CHANGE THE OUTLOOK OF EVERY SCHOOL IN THE COUNTY.

IT APPEARS TO ME THAT THE MOVING AROUND OF STUDENTS IS MORE ABOUT COVERING UP PAST MISTAKES THAN TAKING CARE OF THE EDUCATION OF OUR CHILDREN.

I ALSO KNOW THAT POWELL IS NOT THE ONLY PLACE THIS IS HAPPENING. I CAN ONLY HOPE THAT EVERYBODY THIS IS HAPPENING TO IS CALLING THEIR SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS, NEIGHBORS AND ANYONE ELSE THAT CAN GET THIS PROBLEM TAKEN CARE OF. WE NEED TO FIGHT FOR OUR COMMUNITIES BECAUSE IF WE DON'T NOBODY ELSE WILL.

We are "west" Powell residents and, clearly, opposed to this plan as well. To clear up the distance issue you questioned with regard to the residents west of Clinton Highway, our family lives just past the "new" Clinton Highway dividing line, so we can practically spit and hit the middle school. We are literally minutes from all three Powell schools. I may be speaking out of turn, but many residents on "this side" may not be totally opposed with regard to transportation since many live further west than we do and maybe a commute to Karns wouldn't be totally unreasonable, but I think the main issue all Powell residents being re-zoned have is with regard to our community being torn apart! We all live in Powell and want to attend school in the community we live in. That is certainly reasonable and expected. To live in one community and attend school in another is totally ridiculous and unreasonable to ask people to do. We are being "forced" to Karns because Karns is losing nearly 1,000 students to Hardin Valley. There is also the issue of students being re-zoned to Powell who do not live in Powell and, potentially, could care less about this community. Communities are built by families who put something into them.

For all interested: Rex Stooksbury is having a public forum on April 24th at Powell High School at 6:30 p.m. If you are at all concerned about re-zoning in the Powell area, please plan to attend this meeting and offer your concerns, suggestions, comments, or ideas.

I think I have all the announced meetings listed here. I don't have dates or times for the gatherings being planned by individuals.