Upfront let me point out that Lenoir City has their own school district that is a separate, legal entity governed by their own Board of Ed. They have had their own school district for well over a century! Last Monday Mr. Garren told me we have MORE THAN 300 Lenoir City students in our county district schools. WOW! THAT IS A LOT OF CLASSROOM SPACE in our schools…. Do our new commissioners know that Loudon County WILL NOT receive any dollars for school construction for THOSE 300 PLUS STUDENTS WHO ARE IN OUR COUNTY DISTRICT SCHOOLS?

When it comes to new construction projects, whether it be adding classrooms or building a NEW school, we must ONLY do NEW construction to accommodate our county district students (not city district students or TOTALLY out-of-county students who have been allowed to enroll in our schools).

If our Board of Ed exercised their right to NOT enroll those 300+ Lenoir City district students next year, we would “create” space for MORE THAN 300 Loudon County district students and require ZERO tax dollars to create that space! Certainly Eaton and North Middle schools should not be needing any NEW classrooms if those students are NOT enrolled next year.

(Should Lenoir City not allow ALL OF our K-8 students that are attending Lenoir City district schools that would be 151 students coming back into our schools.)

If we had to take back into our county schools all the high school students we have in Lenoir City High School that would be 611 students coming back; and, we know we don’t have the space for them in our two high schools, and that would ALSO leave Lenoir City with a half empty high school.

So how do you measure twice and cut once?

I respectfully recommend that the County Commission request the Board of Ed provide you with an up- to-date student headcount as follows:

A. Headcount for EACH OF OUR SCHOOLS, including the Tech School, showing total number of students and how many of the total students are OUT-OF-DISTRICT AND OUT OF COUNTY STUDENTS.

B. Confirm how many of our county students are going to Lenoir City district schools and in what grades so that can accommodate them in our own schools.

The Board of Ed is asking you to RUBBER STAMP, AND FUND WITH A HUGE TAX INCREASE, a massive $115 million PROJECT that includes NEW SQUARE FOOTAGE FOR NON-DISTRICT STUDENTS and who knows how many out- of- county students.

Look at how bad this can get for us!

Commissioners, we cannot be JUMPING UP AND VOLUNTARILY RAISING OUR TAXES AGAIN AND AGAIN to build and expand our county district schools ESPECIALLY when there are 800 to 1000 new students Mr. Garren expects to materialize due to the 5,000 new building permits issued by Lenoir City! AGAIN, WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR LENOIR CITY DISTRICT STUDENTS AND WE SHOULD NOT ALLOW THIS BOARD OF ED TO PUSH OUR COUNTY INTO TAKING ON THAT GIGANTIC FINANCIAL BURDEN THAT HAS BELONGED TO LENOIR CITY FOR MORE THAN A CENTURY.

There is a great saying by the author of the Godfather, Mario Puzo: A LAWYER WITH A BRIEFCASE CAN STEAL MORE THAN A HUNDRED MEN WITH GUNS. How true that is!

Mr. Garren said The Board of Ed attorney advised him we must take the Lenoir City students because of TITLE 49. Well, that is contrary to what the Loudon County attorney recently wrote to County Commission Chairman, Henry Cullen. The county attorney said: there is no Tennessee law that directly prohibits the Loudon County Board of Ed from refusing to accept students that live within Lenoir City. That is an unsettled question of law. In the same letter an Attorney General’s Opinion supports the conclusion that because local school boards can prescribe residency requirements for enrollment in county schools, the Loudon County Board of Ed can properly deny Lenoir City residents admission to county schools based on their residency. There is NO state law requiring a county school system to enroll students who are residents of a municipality with a separate school system.

So, our County Attorney recommended to Chairman Cullen we have the State General Assembly settle this unsettled law. What the General Assembly’s answer is will have a MASSIVE FINANCIAL IMPACT TO OUR COUNTY TAXES. I URGE THIS COMMISSION TO ABSOLUTELY TAKE NO ACTION TO RAISE OUR TAXES FOR FUNDING SCHOOL PROJECTS UNTIL SUCH TIME AS THESE TWO THINGS TAKE PLACE:

1) THE STATE GENERAL ASSEMBLY CLAIRIFIES IF WE MUST ADMIT LENOIR CITY DISTRICT STUDENTS TO OUR SCHOOLS; AND,

2) YOU NEED TO RESPECTFULLY ASK FOR AND RECEIVE A NEW AND PROFESSIONALLY PREPARED UNBIASED, SCHOOL SPACE NEEDS PROPOSAL THAT IS DESIGNED FOR OUR COUNTY DISTRICT STUDENTS ONLY; AND, THE GROWTH ANTICIPATED FOR OUR COUNTY DISTRICT STUDENTS ONLY (including for our county students that are currently in Lenoir city schools).