Brent-xit?: Brentwood City Commissioner Wants To Vet City School District

BRENTWOOD, TN — A long-time Brentwood city commissioner wants to explore the feasibility of starting up a school system at a time of funding and zoning uncertainty from the county school district.

In a Sunday Facebook post, City Commissioner Rhea Little said Brentwood is coming to an educational crossroads.

“In the course of time a community comes to a crossroad and decisions need to be made if we should continue on the same path or should a new path be taken. To best make this decision, we as the citizens of Brentwood, need the best information possible to make the right decision for our community,” the post read in part.

Little posted he intends to seek a feasibility study for a city school district at the April 20 informational meeting of the city commission.

(For more updates on this story and free news alerts for your neighborhood, sign up for your local Middle Tennessee Patch morning newsletter.)

The Williamson County Commission is scheduled to vote May 8 on funding an expansion to the campus that holds Brentwood Middle and High schools and Williamson County Director of Schools Mike Looney said without that expansion, the district will have no choice but to rezone hundreds of students, sending them to Franklin or Nolensville schools.

Little told the Brentwood Home Page that he loves Williamson County Schools but questions from both parents of school-aged children and others — who he said are concerned about property values if a rezoning change sends their neighborhoods out of the Brentwood zone — prompted the move.

Looney told the Home Page that he recognizes the anxiety around the rezoning but he isn't sure Brentwood residents would go for a city system because of the costs.

“If you created your own system you’d have to get your own buses, create your own administrative staff," he told the paper, adding that the city would also have to find land for schools or buy the current schools from the county.

Image via City of Brentwood