Lenoir City schools administrators are convinced that if the county builds a new high school, on the upper end of the county, it will eventually decimate their high school. That's not likely to be the case. In fact, a new county middle/high school would not only resolve the over crowding conditions in the north end county schools, it would also do the same for Lenoir City schools. If a large number of county students do decide to attend the new county middle/high school rather than the city high school, that would free up space in the city high school allowing them to expand as the county plans to, saving the city from having to build more schools or additions.

There's a few problems with the resolution. First, it's dated July 11, 2024, signed by all the board members and the soon to be new director, as the director. One would have to wonder how this resolution came to be without a whole lot of violations of the state's open meeting laws. The law says, no debates, discussions or deliberations to conclusions unless in an open meeting. There has been no open meeting and certainly no public vote on such a resolution.

Second, the resolution flies in face of the statement the previous Lenoir City board chairman made when he told county commission that Lenoir City schools would consider charging tuition or refusing enrollment of county students if the high school ran out of space. According to current director, DOCTOR Barker, who is retiring, the high school has room for 200 more students.

Lastly, the resolution has no stated date of how long the city would continue to take county students, a year, two, five, till the high school fills up? Doesn't say. Would the city spend their own funds to expand the high school to accommodate more county students? This policy could be changed by a vote of the board at any time. In essence, it's not worth the paper it's written on. Ask the city attorney.

This resolution is kind of like when the city school board tried to buy the property out from under the county to stop the new school. Just another ploy to prevent the county from planning for the future of education for county students.

Oh my goodness, I'm just trying to imagine how the vigilant county watchdogs would react if the county had presented such a document, post dated, no open meetings, no votes and obviously was developed behind closed doors.