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By Tonya Sprague
People News Staff Reporter

New statistics released to The People News under the Tennessee Open Records Act show that the Bradley County school system may be accepting a greater number of students from outside the district than they are losing to the City of Cleveland and surrounding counties, which could be placing an inequitable burden on county schools.

On December 13, 2007, the Bradley County Board of Education held one of their regular voting meetings. One item on the agenda was a proposal to the Bradley County Commission for funding for additional facilities because existing schools were becoming overcrowded due to population growth the county has experienced in the past several

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years. Bradley County Director of Schools Bob Taylor, and the  school board, have stated that Bradley County schools are overcrowded to the point of using closets, hallways, and bathrooms as instructional areas and are using computer labs and science labs as extra classroom space.

The Bradley County Board of Education has requested funding for two new elementary schools, one in the north and one in the south, to include the purchase of land, and an addition at Valley View Elementary School that will consist of a library and six classrooms. There was also a request for six portable classrooms for immediate use. Taylor estimated overall cost for this proposal to be $26 million. An additional $13 million would go to Cleveland City schools as their share under a funding agreement which guarantees the Cleveland system a third of any county capital outlay funding. This agreement brings the overall cost of the construction project to an estimated $39 million for county taxpayers.

In Bradley County, class sizes vary from school zone to school zone. School zones are areas around each school from which its students are gathered. Many school districts in Tennessee have stopped accepting out-of-zone students, and/or students who reside in other counties. The Polk County School District is one such example.

In the Bradley County school system there are 901 students combined who either reside outside of Bradley County or within the City of Cleveland. Of the 901 students, 727 reside in Cleveland and are zoned for the city school district and 174 reside in other counties. In the Cleveland City school system there are only 173 students who reside outside of the city school district. Of the 173 students, 163 reside in Bradley County and just 10 students reside in other counties. The Bradley County School System would have decreased their student population by 901 students this school year if they had adopted the policy of not accepting students who reside outside of their school zone. 901 minus 163 county students now attending Cleveland schools if the city reciprocated.

Not accepting these 738 students would mean a significant reduction in overall average class size throughout the Bradley County school district or could reduce the need for extra classroom space in Bradley County schools. This adjustment of student enrollment, while beneficial to the Bradley system, could cause class size and space requirements to rise for the City of Cleveland and also deny them the extra capital outlay funding the present proposal would bring. Also, enrollment in the county system would drop resulting in a loss of per student state funding.

According to Bradley County 2007 enrollment statistics, an additional 344 out-of-zone children or grandchildren of employees also attend county schools, but it is not clear from documents supplied how many of these are from out of the system. There was no information supplied on similar statistics for City of Cleveland schools.

The rules of the Tennessee State Board of Education revised October 2007, chapter 0520-1-3.03, the Administration of Schools Requirement B, state, the average class size for grade level K-3 is 20 students with a maximum of 25. The average class size for grade level 4-6 is 25 students with a maximum of 30. The average class size for grade level 7-12 is 30 students with a maximum of 35.

In the Bradley County School System the actual student-teacher ratio or the number of students per teacher including the out-of-zone students, according to the Tennessee Department of Education report card for 2007 is 17.8. For the Cleveland City School System it is 14.3. If the Bradley County school system did not accept out-of-zone students the revised student/teacher ratio would be 16.45. If the Cleveland school system accepted students only from their zone the revised ratio would be 16.14. The overall state of Tennessee student-teacher ratio is 15.2. 

Actual class size is not the same as student/teacher ratio because one teacher only takes 3 out of 4 daily class periods, the fourth is used as a planning period for the teacher.
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