The County School Board on Thursday night voted 6-3 to move Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts (CSLA) from its dilapidated site on East Brainerd Road to new "state of the art" quarters at Lakeside Elementary on Highway 58.
In favor were Tucker McClendon, Kathy Lennon, Rhonda Thurman, Joe Smith, Steve Highlander and Joe Wingate.
Opposed were Jenny Hill, Karitsa Mosley Jones and Tiffanie Robinson.
Officials said they will push to have the $25 million project ready by August of 2022.
Justin Witt, maintenance and operations director, said there will be a push for architects to have the plans ready by next April, then the work start not long afterward.
It had been planned to close Lakeside Elementary at the end of this school year with the students next year moving to the new Harrison Elementary School alongside students from Hillcrest Elementary.
County school officials said they have had some $25 million in bond funds available for some three years. Mr. Witt said it would have cost about $10 million more to build a new school at the current CSLA site. He said the plan had been to save that site for a future new elementary school.
At the start of the conversation, Mr. Highlander questioned whether it would be feasible to have a 60-day delay to seek proposals on constructing it at the current site. He said, "I've been told it can be done for a whole lot less than $35 million."
Board member Jones blasted County Commissioner Tim Boyd for getting involved with the project. She said he had been working with some board members, including Mr. Highlander, and was asserting that the county could come up with any needed extra money.
She said she had not been included in a tour by Commissioner Boyd and others of Lakeside, though it is within her district.
Ms. Jones said, "I will not allow a member of another governmental body to big brother me. We don't need anybody else micro-managing the nine of us adults. We don't need Tim Boyd calling people asking to tour a building that ain't in his district.
"I don't see the County Commission giving false hopes to these parents. And it's just pitting some of us against each other. It looks like back dooring and the good old boy system."
She said, "For Tim Boyd to be saying we could get an RFP by October, that's wrong. I'm not having a good week and I've been lied to in my face. I'm very disappointed in my peers."
Mr. McClendon, who said he was four years old when talk began about getting CSLA a new school, called it "a tough but smart decision that is within our money."
He said, "I've always wanted CSLA on their land, but we can't always get what we want. I support the Lakeside option full-hearted. We have kicked the can down the road on this for 21 years. We have to do something for these kids and give them what they deserve."
Ms. Lennon said, "I want to build CSLA now." She said the Lakeside site is centrally located and is 5.7 miles from the current school.
She said, "I don't think we are going to be able to get any extra money."
Mr. Smith said he was ready to move forward, saying it opens up the next steps of new schools for Tyner and Soddy Daisy Middle.
However, he said he is "still not convinced that we need another high school."
Under the move, CSLA moves from a K-8 school to K-12.
Mr. Smith said he is concerned that the new school would siphon students away from Central High School.