Dozens of students, parents, alumni and staff urged the Red Clay Consolidated School District board on Dec. 17 to slow or pause plans to repurpose Thomas McCain as an innovation center, saying families and staff lack clear information and expressing concern about impacts on students with disabilities.

Ryan, a junior at McCain High School and junior class president, told the board he feared the change would strip current and future students of a high-school identity and traditions. "Closing McCain as a high school sends the message to our students and our families and our community that our history is disposable," he said.

Morgan Dukes, a McCain alumnus, current staff member and Red Clay community member, told the board McCain serves 40% of the district's comprehensive high-school students and 44% of the district's special-education population and said the district's outreach had been insufficient. Dukes said a petition opposing what many callers described as McCain's closure had roughly 2,500 signatures, and argued that the implementation timeline (cited by commenters as fall 2027) was "extremely aggressive." "Silence is not approval," Dukes said.

Multiple commenters described transportation and safety risks tied to the draft transportation policy (Policy 5,003), which board members amended earlier in the meeting to send back to committee for further review. Parents and advocates cited a walking route where a child was killed, criticized the use of hub bus stops on dangerous roads, and urged door-side stops and clearer appeal rights for families. One public commenter said the draft created a "loophole" that could make transportation eligibility conditional for disabled students.

Steven Fackenthal, president of the Red Clay Education Association and a general music teacher, said staff buy-in remains a concern and urged the district to learn from past school closures that he said did not fully replicate supports for special education students.

Superintendent Doctor Green responded to public concerns by announcing steps to improve transparency: he said the district would launch a dedicated web page about the McCain Innovation Center "to learn more about Red Clay's plan to expand access to CTE pathways" and that the district would continue to engage McCain staff and other stakeholders. Green described the district's aim to expand career and technical education (CTE), industry-recognized credentials and early college credit at the Thomas McCain Innovation Campus, but acknowledged that communication around the proposal needed work and pledged to share more information.

Board action tied to the McCain planning included formation of an ad hoc attendance-zone restructuring review committee; the board selected community representatives from nominating districts and appointed three boardmembers to the committee. The board also amended the agenda to return the transportation policy to committee for additional review.

What the board did: the board voted to send Policy 5,003 (transportation) back to committee rather than adopt it at tonight's meeting; it selected community representatives for the restructuring review committee; and the superintendent said a public-facing website will go live to centralize information.

Next steps: The district said it will publish the McCain project web page and continue committee work and community engagement; the board will review committee reports and staff updates at upcoming meetings.