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I’m constantly bragging about our success with job growth, economic growth, housing growth, improvements with our recreational options and cutting ribbons for res- taurants and hospitals. The things that are giving more people a reason to move here; and they are. “Morristown and Hamblen County is growing, more peo- ple, and with more people come more kids and I hear it just like I’mcertain our school boardmembers and education administrators hear it ‘we’re going to overload our schools.’ “Yes, this is the challenge. Let’s just take a look at that. Challenges always mean op- portunity and that opportu- nity today is we get to offer something to more kids, and that something is Hamblen County Education.” Chesney then explained how local government offi- cials work to give students a Hamblen County Education, which means a great educa- tion. “We get to turn out more kids who will have been through our school system and we want what they get here to be better than where they would have gotten where- ver they were,” he said. “How do we make that happen?” “We will build a new school and another one if the popu- lation demands it. We ensure quality education by keeping elementary classroom sizes small. “When kids trying to learn to read have too many class- mates to share with one tea- cher, we get the kind of re- sults the state of Tennessee and Hamblen County got this year about reading test scores. When you do this, it tells our current citizens and the new- comers, that when you send your children across the stage on graduation night, they will have something that others around us do not have, a Ham- blen County Education.” When completed, the school will be the result of multiple visions of leadership, accor- ding to Hamblen County Su- perintendent of Schools Ar- nie Bunch. “We need to thank (former superintendent) Jeff Perry,” Bunch said. “Dr. Perry ini- tiated the effort here to pur- chase the land and champio- ned to get the project moving forward and if it had not been started until I got here and it would have been further dela- yed and I’m glad Jeff got this started and I know he’s proud of what we’re doing today.” Design plans for the new Lincoln Heights El- ementary School