Brentwood Board Bucks School Secession

BRENTWOOD, TN -- In a somewhat surprising move, the Brentwood City Commission voted down a plan to fund a year-long study on the feasibility of the city seceding from the Williamson County Schools system.

At Tuesday's city commission meeting, the board deadlocked 3-3 - Commissioner Regina Smithson was absent - on a vote to fund a $240,000 study by Southern Education Strategies. Mayor Jill Burgin and Commissioners Betty Crossley and Anne Dunn voted against the contract, while Mark Gorman, Ken Travis and Rhea Little voted in favor.

Little, who first floated the Brent-xit idea in April 2017, initially moved to defer the vote to the June 25, but that motion failed, as well.

A major hang-up throughout the already year-long secession debate relates to the potential ownership of existing WCS buildings and how - or even if - that property would transfer to a Brentwood city district. There's no state law directing that process and very little case law, a point even SES conceded during its initial feasibility examination.

Nevertheless, the secession idea picked up steam as the county continues its struggle to find a long-term funding solution for its rapidly growing and immensely successful school district.

At a July 2017 meeting of the commission, residents expressed concern that the county would have no choice but to raise property taxes to fund schools, which they argued would disproportionately hit Brentwood residents harder because of the city's higher property values and that there's a gap between what Brentwood pays in property taxes and what it receives from Williamson County Schools. City Manager Kirk Bednar predicted Brentwood would have to add about 15 cents to the city's property tax to adequately operate the district.

Williamson County Schools are regularly ranked the top public school district in Tennessee and at the top or near the top of rankings of school districts its size nationally. The two high schools in the city, Brentwood and Ravenwood, were ranked as the fifth and sixth best high schools in Tennessee, respectively, in the latest US News rankings, behind only academic magnets. Williamson County has the lowest county property tax in Middle Tennessee and the lowest of any county in the state of 100,000 people or more.

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