The Roane County Commission has voted against a measure to combine county high schools into one large consolidated school.
It was standing room only at the Monday vote with people from the community backed up into the hallway.
The estimated $60 million dollar plan would have retired Kingston, Harriman and Rockwood high schools and combine them in a new building near Roane State Community College.
After more than a year of public opposition and failure to garner support, the measure flatly failed after 11 Roane County Commissioners voted against consolidating the high schools, with two voting yes and two others passing on the vote. Leaders also shot down a proposal to delay the vote 30 days.
Some community members like Linda Coffey, though, were disappointed by the decision.
"I’m more than disappointed, I’m disappointed that they couldn’t come together with the school board and make a decision," she said. "Tonight could have been really exciting, we could have had change."
The commission had held a public discussion at the end of January before making the vote.
The measure saw widespread opposition from the community despite garnering support from some county leaders, with 78 percent of voters rejecting a proposed $50 wheel tax on the November election ballot that would have been used to fund the consolidated high school.
In April 2017, the Roane County Board of Education had also voted against the idea, punting the proposal to the Roane County Commission. At the time, the Roane County Director of Schools had surveyed the community, with most people supporting community education rather than a single consolidated high school.
In its early stages, seven of ten school board members had supported the idea -- saying a consolidated school would have saved the county a significant amount of money and would have provided a 'stronger education system under one roof' that would give access to a greater variety of school programs to all students.
The majority of the community strongly disapproved of the idea for a number of reasons after learning about it, saying it would lead to much longer bus trips for many students, particularly for students in Oliver Springs and Midway. Some commissioners said at the time were also concerned the 'mega school' would have led to tax increases for the county.