Knoxville — Hundreds of parents and educators turned out for Monday night's Knox County board of education work session that is reviewing recommended budget cuts to area magnet programs.
With 87 people signed up to speak with allotted times of five minutes, the public forum portion of the meeting was set to take seven hours and 15 minutes or longer if time between speakers is factored. The meeting went well into the night, ending after 12:30 a.m.
The board began meeting in a work session at 5 p.m. at the City County Building downtown.
Scores of people spilled out of the City County Building downtown as the panel met inside early Monday afternoon.
As the meeting room filled, more people gathered on the building's front lawn.
Knox County Schools Superintendent Bob Thomas is recommending cuts to all magnet schools. The funding could be reduced by at least a million dollars.
That includes all magnet activities at Sarah Moore Greene and Green Magnet Academies.
The cuts are part of Thomas' 2019 budget proposal.
In his memo, Thomas said research shows the programs "are not significantly impacting student achievement" and "some magnet schools have seen limited parent demand."
But Thomas says it's a recommendation, and it's not final.
"It's just simply that, a recommendation," Thomas told 10News before Monday's board work session. "There's not been public discussion with the board at this point. So there could be discussions that come out of that meeting, there could be other ideas."
The recommendation is a change from a letter Thomas wrote to state education leaders just four months ago. In the letter obtained by 10News, Thomas recommended Green Magnet Academy receive the STEM designation, and called it one of the most highly regarded STEM programs in Knox County.
He also said the academy makes learning personal and meaningful.
Ashlee Brown is one of dozens of parents upset the magnet program may be cut for budgetary reasons. She has a second grader and a fourth grader at Green Magnet Academy, and sees value in the education her children receive there.
"If you change the way the school is, they won't have the opportunity for a great future," she said. "My children look forward to coming to school every day and some of these students, this is the best part of their day."
Green Magnet Academy Principal Jessica Holman said she's seen first-hand the difference the school has made on its students.
One of those former students is about to graduate from Dartmouth Medical School.
"She wanted to write the principal to thank them and thank the school for instilling in her the love of science and math, and that's why she wanted to become a doctor," Holman said.
Parent Candis Mobley said the school has instilled the same passion in her kids.
"They know they can be anything they wanna be," she said. "We're in the inner city, people don't think of us as scientists or engineers or, you know, mathematicians or literary people, they don't know that we do that too."
Thomas said the cuts would allow the school system to extend teacher contracts for priority schools, and fund startup costs for the new Gibbs and Hardin Valley middle schools, among other projects.
He also wants to reallocate some money that's gone to the Project GRAD Scholar Program, which helps at-risk youth attend college.
"We're looking right now at working with Project GRAD. If they come back with a proposal that just focuses on those secondary schools, what would that cost be? It would be providing opportunities for students that really the school system doesn't provide," Thomas said.
Project GRAD is also at Green Magnet Academy, so if cuts to both program happen, Holman said her school will be hit twice as hard.
"I know they have difficult decisions to make, but they need to keep doing this work in this community," she said.
The Board of Education is expected to vote on the budget recommendation during its regular meeting on Wednesday.