“There were a few things we moved around in order to provide funding for non-recurring (expenses.)” Watson told the Senate panel. GOP leaders didn’t specify where the $200 million removed for school relocation would go, but the budget amendment showed a $200 million addition to the rainy day fund, an emergency account the state can use to keep the government operating in case of a revenue shortfall. Patsy Hazlewood, who chairs the House Finance Committee, called the list of schools a “moving target” and said “there were just a lot of questions about that.” “We also didn’t understand how Wooddale Middle is in the flood zone but Wooddale High is not, because they’re essentially on the same block,” Rodgers said. “This has all been news to us,” said Jocquell Rodgers, chief external affairs officer for Green Dot Public Schools, a charter network that operates Wooddale on a campus owned by Memphis-Shelby County Schools. In Memphis, where Wooddale Middle School was slated for relocation under the governor’s plan, administrators said they did not realize the state-run school was in a flood plain and have yet to be contacted by the governor’s office. Multiple different lists of flood-prone schools have also floated around, including one that showed 25 Tennessee schools at risk of flooding.
NASHVILLE FLOOD MAP FULL
(The amended budget provides up to $20 million to help Humphreys County Schools if insurance and federal disaster relief funds don’t cover the full cost.) Jay Reedy, a Republican whose district includes the Waverly area. Nolensville Elementary, Williamson County, 550 studentsįor one thing, the two Humphreys County schools wrecked in August weren’t on the list, frustrating officials trying to rebuild after the flooding, said Rep.Station Camp Middle School, Sumner County, 875 students.Forks River Elementary, Smith County, 200 students.American Way Middle, Shelby County, 700 students.Lowrance Elementary/Middle, Shelby County, 910 students.Pittman Center Elementary, Sevier County, 325 students.Gainesboro Elementary, Jackson County, 340 students.
Clifton Hills Elementary, Hamilton County, 627 students.Richland Elementary, Giles County, 520 students.Edgemont Elementary, Cocke County, 551 students.Hampton High School, Carter County, 400 students.Wynn Habersham Elementary, Campbell County, 155 students.Wooddale Middle School, Achievement School District, 400 students.Some legislators and local officials were confused by the list of 14 schools the governor identified. “We can’t predict where a tornado is going to hit, but we can predict where it’s going to flood.” “This investment is important because we know this kind of thing will happen again and again, and it’s not worth losing more lives,” Land said. “We can only imagine how many more lives would have been lost in Waverly if the flooding had happened during school hours instead of on the weekend,” said Dwain Land, the former mayor of Dunlap, who spoke with Chalkbeat on behalf of Flood Ready Tennessee, a coalition of local officials, homeowners, and first responders. Lee’s press secretary, Casey Black, said the governor was “aware and monitoring” legislative changes to his spending plan but she declined to comment further. The disaster, which killed 20 people and destroyed hundreds of homes, was the impetus for the governor’s proposal “to ensure that no student in Tennessee attends a public school located in a flood zone.” The change to the state’s 2022-23 budget plan comes as hundreds of students in Humphreys County attend school in a repurposed warehouse after surging floodwaters destroyed their elementary and middle schools last August in Waverly, a rural town west of Nashville.
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