Smith Announces Retirement

Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Rick Smith said Monday that he would be retiring effective July 1.

Smith released the following statement to the media.

“Today I am announcing my retirement from Hamilton County Schools. My retirement will be effective July 1, 2016. I will be taking leave effective immediately. Until such time as an interim Superintendent is named, the day-to-day operations will be delegated to the executive staff members and administrative assistants.

“It has been my honor to serve Hamilton County Schools these many years. I would like to thank students, parents and especially all Hamilton County Department of Education employees for their support. My family and I wish only the very best for our Hamilton County public school system.”

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.