This is a needed topic of conversation In Kingsport. Bristol and Johnson City are running circles around us right now when it comes to city growth and development. Bristol has the Hard Rock nearing completion. Johnson City’s I-26 and 11-E corridors are growing rapidly. In Kingsport, our two newest elementary schools helped grow our city. I am concerned that we are leaving that growth model, and pursuing a redistribution of wealth model. It begs to re-ask the question, “How can a school system help a city grow?”
When the Edinburgh development was built in Kingsport, a new elementary school was placed out there by the city in order to help seed the development. I was against it. It seemed like a waste of taxpayer money, because it was so far from current city growth. Boy, was I wrong. It is easily the fastest growing development in Kingsport’s city limits. That development has now reached the I-81 corridor and will almost certainly demand the placement of a brand new exit on I-81 at some point.
All of that is a preface to this, we shouldn’t be building schools in places where tax revenue isn’t there. Harsh? Maybe. But understand this, if we don’t have housing growth, Johnson City and Bristol are going to grab our share. If we want to build new schools in low income areas, we first need income in the form of tax growth from higher income areas. Lynn Garden doesn’t need a new school right now. The tax base is too low. As a city we need to follow the Edinburgh model and build our new schools along the I-81 and I-26 corridors. We have to place more new schools in those areas. That also includes Colonial Heights. Now, that doesn’t mean that we can’t maintain high quality schools in those lower income areas – sure we can! However, if we want to compete, we need to be placing schools where new growth is occurring.
Kingsport made an absolutely monumental blunder in accepting the North campus. Buying North was just a colossal failure in judgement, and it still isn’t open! Sullivan Co built two new schools while North still sits empty of Kingsport students. It set us back fiscally for years. We don’t have $30-40 million dollars just sitting around to renovate it, and we bought a school in an area where we don’t need one. It was/is a money pit to quote an alderman at the time . Have you ever watched the scene in Talladega Nights where Ricky Bobby doesn’t know where to put his hands in the interview? We bought an outdated school campus, and have no idea what to do with it. It is on the side of town with zero growth – none. Sullivan Co had to have bonds issued for a new high school and middle school. In issuing the bond, they offered to trade North in exchange for keeping all of the money raised. Our then superintendent, bent on making a name for himself, took the facility and swapped our bond money for North. He also agreed to have two high schools in the city limits of Kingsport closed – how dumb! We were told North was in good condition, but we all knew it wasn’t. It was as stupid as Napoleon selling the Louisiana territory to the United States for next to nothing. The county was able to release a piece of property that was in a dilapidated state, and build two beautiful new schools. Sullivan Co now has arguably the nicest high school and middle school in the county. Kingsport should have swapped for South’s campus and Rock Springs Elementary. And where are those? They are exactly in the current aforementioned growth corridors. We need to be smarter with our urban planning if we intend to grow as a city.
So, how do we fix this? We need butts in seats to put it bluntly. If we build a school along those interstate corridors, the student capacity(due to accompanying tax dollars of incoming county students) will pay for a lot of the operational schools over time. Even better, as new neighborhoods are built(people are flooding into the TRI as political refugees from blue states), those tax dollars will then help us build more schools. It is a cycle of growth that both Knoxville and Nashville have used. Now, I am not in favor of explosive growth as I-26 can barely handle the traffic it has now. (BTW, if you are a political leader in JC or KPT, you will be a legend if you can get that expanded to four lanes in both directions.) However, building a new school in an area that is in a lower income area of Kingsport AND which doesn’t bring in new students…is going to put us in a position where we are playing from behind financially. Meaning? Well, this means that Kingsport needs to build schools where we are growing. By seeding growth first, we can expand our tax revenue base, and use that money for the next school. By building in a low income area first, I am not sure we will have the money needed to aggressively grow our city after that. The Sullivan North debacle set us back years in terms of being able to grow our city and school system – and it still is. We have a huge campus that we can’t afford to use, and is an area of flatlined growth. We will constantly be behind monetarily.
In conclusion, we need to put infrastructure in areas where we can grow our tax base. We need homes for new families so that our city doesn’t age further. Those younger families are our city’s future. Let’s put up the welcome sign by building neighborhoods and schools along the I-81 and I-26 corridors. It has worked in Edinburgh. Let’s continue to repeat the use of that model. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Kingsport this is our moment to capitalize on the loads of people moving into the area. If we don’t seize this opportunity by building new housing developments and new schools, Bristol and Johnson City (even Gray) will lap us. For starters, let’s not make the same mistake twice (by building in area where the city is not growing). And if we don’t build public schools along those interstate corridors, Lakeway Christian Schools are going to do it for us.
Pro Tip: My advice to those on the south side of Kingsport. You all need a middle school somewhere in Colonial Heights or Rock Springs. Colonial Heights needs an elementary school as does Indian Springs. My advice is to run your own candidates from those suburbs. People in those areas need to use their financial and population bases to get representatives on the BOE and BMA. Then, vote money to your side of town. Right now government officials are using your tax dollars to fund projects in other parts of town instead of reinvesting in your areas. As the old adage goes, “No taxation without representation.” Do we really want south side dollars being spent on the north and east sides of town where there is zero growth?
And what would I do with North? Find a partner and build a university there. We need a university in Kingsport. That is a great footprint for a higher education campus. Take those lemons and turn them into lemonade. The people who built this town were originally concerned with economic growth. An initiative to build a combined innovative online and bricks-and-mortar university would be a massive upgrade and financial boost to our city. All of these wonderful students from Dobyns-Bennett could stay at home. Our investment in their K-12 education would then be re-invested into our city by them offering the opportunity to stay here for college, and not have to leave. Whoever could pull this off would be on the figurative Mr Rushmore for Kingsport.
The two most important requirements for major success are: first, being in the right place at the right time, and second, doing something about it. Ray Kroc / McDonalds Founder
