Parents and Friends of East Hamilton Middle School

11/23/2022

However, we are aware that some government entities may use vague and baseless innuendo to discredit its critics and deflect attention from its own misdeeds...

11/19/2022

East Hamilton Middle School has the 7th largest enrollment in Hamilton County per the Chattanoogan (https://www.chattanoogan.com/2022/8/25/454735/Hamilton-County-Schools-Has-Another.aspx)

Does anyone know how our student/teacher and our student/administration ratios compare to other schools?

I'm not a big proponent of overstaffing and I think most government entities are grossly overstaffed, but I think its something to look into.

Do we need more resources or if we corrected the discipline issues, would the teachers and administration have more time to do their jobs - educating our children?

Hamilton County Schools reported an enrollment increase on the 10th day from 44,285 last school year to 45,121 this year.

11/19/2022

I hope to make one more post and then take a break for a little while. I've spent a lot of time on this over the last few days and it is still very important to me.

I didn't create the page solely for me to post my thoughts. I just took a little time to dig into what I thought were some of the issues at the school and wanted to share those. I'm sure there are many more that you all can share and hope you do.

I believe the only way to change things is for us to confront the issue as a group.

Its amazing to me that we have a busload of very well paid, educated people whose sole responsibility is to educate and keep our children safe and it takes an uprising to have these issues addressed.

I have very little confidence in them if left unattended.

11/19/2022

This is a touchy subject, but one I think we need to address to make our school better.

There is a current program that places unzoned students from underperforming schools to EHMS. Some of these students cause issues that go unaddressed.

Personally, I like and support this program. Some kids are stuck in environments that do not offer a way out and they deserve a chance for a better life. I believe a good education is a major part of what we all need to prosper. If my children were in an impossible situation, I would be eternally grateful for them to be given a chance like this. It would be an answered prayer.

BUT, I believe that the students and families that are accepted into this program and enrolled at schools like EHMS have an obligation to themselves, to the other students and to the school to take advantage of the opportunity. This includes obeying the school's rules, including those that relate to behavior.

If they can't, they need to go.

Its not fair to allow them to take the seat that could be given to another student that would take advantage of the opportunity. And its not fair to allow them to disrupt a safe learning environment that the school should be committed to provide.

Someone suggested that HCDE may be slow to deal with this issue since that would imply that the program had failed. I'm not sure this is true, but if it is they should swallow their pride and do what's best for the school.

The lack of doing what's best for the school and the overwhelming majority of students seems to be a consistent issue.

This has to be corrected.

What do you think?

11/19/2022

Did you know that EHMS had a relatively high discipline/suspension rate on the State issued school report card last year?

Some believe this reflects poorly on HCDE.

We had a conversation with HCDE yesterday and confirmed EHMS suspensions are way down from last year. If the suspensions (and other disciplinary actions) never occur, HCDE looks better on paper.

It seems possible that our leaders are managing our schools to look better to the outside world and sacrificing our children's school by doing so.

Has anyone mentioned this to you What do you think?

11/19/2022

We believe that one of the major issues at EHMS is the lack of swift and effective discipline. Its impossible to get a problem student dealt with. Administrators say "it takes time". We've personally seen situations that took months to resolve (if ever). Would you discipline your child today for something you knew they did last Summer?

In the meantime, the good students are subjected to intimidation and other major disruptions to what should be a safe learning environment.

Why are our school leaders sacrificing the overwhelming majority of kids to accommodate a few?

What are your thoughts?

11/19/2022

We've been approached privately by multiple EHMS teachers asking for help.

They think the current environment is out of control and consistently reference a lack of support from the current EHMS administration. Is this consistent with your experiences?

11/18/2022

This page was created so the parents and friends of East Hamilton Middle School have a central location to communicate and share issues they have at our school. We hope that it’s a tool we can use to change the current EHMS environment, for the good of our children.

Our family has lived in the area for over 20 years. We have been actively involved in our local schools since 2004 or 2005. We have 2 kids that graduated from East Hamilton and 2 more that are currently enrolled.

We’ve had largely good experiences with school leaders, administrators, teachers and friends at our schools. But we’ve come to realize that if we have an issue that we can’t resolve at the local level, HCDE will do nothing but stonewall individual or small groups of parents. We believe that working together is the only way to gain the attention that we need to resolve issues that affect us all.

We’ve been hearing stories about bad student behavior going unchecked from our daughter and our friends this entire school year. We were concerned but didn’t decide to get involved until our daughter was personally threatened.
SHAME ON US!

Our daughter has been targeted by a current student that has a history of bad behavior. She has hit and cursed at teachers, walks out of class at times of her choosing, bullies other students and screams and creates distractions during class time, including benchmark testing.

Despite this student’s history and current behavior, she is not changing. The principal insists they are working on that but “changes to behavior takes time” and the problem student “deserves an education”.

We agree on both points, but I don’t believe her behavior should be allowed to ruin the environment of my daughter and the dozens of other children that must function around her daily.

We know that many of you are aware of our issue and have others that affect your family personally.

We hope you will communicate these issues to the school, to HCDE, to local leaders you may know and to the media.

We also hope you will share your issues and your experiences with the school’s administration and HCDE on this page so we can have a record of those things.

Some contact emails that you might consider using are:

[email protected] - HCDE Superintendant
[email protected] – EHMS Principal
[email protected] – Harrison Bay Community Superintendent