Jim Watson urges Hamilton County Schools to begin radon testing in classrooms

Jim Watson, a resident of District 3, told the Hamilton County Board of Education during the work session that the district should begin testing classrooms for radon, which he described as "the second leading cause of lung cancer" in the U.S. and a potential health risk for students and staff.

"There's only one way to know if you have radon in a specific room, and that's to have the room tested," Watson said, describing short-term test kits that are inexpensive and simple to deploy. He told the board that Ivy Academy and Skiller Elementary previously tested their rooms and that one room showed levels "slightly higher than acceptable" and was mitigated. Watson said mitigation typically involves venting beneath a building's foundation to the outside.

Watson said testing is inexpensive — "a couple dollars," he said — and urged the district to "at least look into starting a radon testing program." He also noted that the town of Farragut recently adopted an ordinance requiring new construction to be pre-piped for radon as a preventative measure.

Clerk Miss Shepherd closed the public-comment period after Watson's three-minute presentation. The board did not take a formal vote or adopt a specific next step on radon testing during the work session; staff did not announce an immediate plan or timeline in response on the record.

The presentation placed a low-cost, preventive testing option before the board while tying it to local examples where testing found elevated readings and mitigation followed. The district has not yet recorded any formal direction from the board on the subject during this meeting.