When The Doors Close

Will the Pound area derive any benefits from consolidation? If consolidation occurs will it bring jobs to people from Pound? Will kids from Pound find it easier to participate in extra-curricular activities? The answer to both is no. Will there be a marked enhancement of academics? No.
Pound has much more than adequate academic offerings. The proposed new courses by Basham were silly. Oceanography? Granted continental drift may impell us to the ocean in a few billion years- but I think the county schools can wait a few millennia before making this offering.
There seems to be a tendency in secondary school bureaucracies to create educational empires. High schools are impinging upon courses properly offered at the collegiate level. This is a prodigious waste of secondary school money. High schools are high schools- colleges are colleges. Virtuallly all of the enhanced course offerings I heard of should have been taught at the collegiate level.
True- taxpayers have complained about constantly increasing tax bills to support the schools. The amount spent on Wise County schools has steadily gone up and up- out of sight. Why is this? We have had a fiscally irresponsible school system. Technological advances should certainly not account for the money spent. If computers and other devices are sensibly bought they can be bought pretty cheaply in bulk. Teacher raises? Some- but very far from being all of the increase. While the County saw a steady decrease in enrollment- administrative costs spiraled. Compare the number of front office people in Wise during the Kelly, Richmond, And Graham administrations with what we have now. This same bunch led by Basham wanted to consolidate. To save money? I seriously question whether a single high will receive more funding than our current schools. Any savings in upkeep will be offset by transportation and ancillary costs. The real savings in Wise County will come from taking a close look at and pruning the costs of administration. The people in the smaller towns simply cannot trust these people to make decisions favorable to their communities or pocketbooks.
Their are winners and losers in consolidation- but the trouble is all the winners live in Wise.

tillie, all the schools in Wise County are small schools. If we consolidate, they will still be small schools. The teacher-student ratio will not or should not change much. I would think that there would be no fewer teachers employed in a consolidation of Wise and Pound than there are now in seperate schools. I know first-hand the type of education students at Kelly are receving now. My son is a student at Kelly and quite honestly, as a student at Kelly he has the the best educational opportunities available to him in the county. That is due to the quality of our admininistration and staff, the county schools' relationship with MECC, and last but not least the close proximity of UVA-Wise to the J.J. Kelly campus. The last two years we have had over 40 students graduate from Kelly with at least enough college credit hours to enter college as first year sophomores. Probably 8-10 of those students had nearly a year-and-a-half of college under their belt due to these dual-enrollment opportunities. I would say that PV has many students in the same situation.

The price tag on renovating our existing schools is going up every day, the longer we wait, the higher the cost gets. I'm just afraid that the reality will be that Wise County can't afford to renovate what we already have. In my opinion, it is going to be more than the 54 million that had everyone in such an uproar before.

As a side note, if consolidation does occur, I think there needs to be a major overhaul of the roads and transportation system in Wise County(this is probably not going to happen). No student should have a 30-minute ride to high school. That would mean big bucks to widen and straighten roads such as Hurricane Road, Birchfield, Almra, South Fork, Boldcamp, Guest River, etc.

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If we consolidate, they will still be small schools. The teacher-student ratio will not or should not change much. I would think that there would be no fewer teachers employed in a consolidation of Wise and Pound than there are now in seperate schools. I know first-hand the type of education students at Kelly are receving now

[/ QUOTE ]Think again- the "first class study" that ran Basham out said that all schools, PV, Wise and Coeburn, too, had UNDERSIZED CLASSROOMS (2/3 of what was needed to bring the schools up to today's standards), meaning that class sizes need to be at least 30 kids to get the savings that were talked about. That was when the rest of the county bucked, couldn't renovate ANY school, MAJOR work , knocking out the walls and when you change the load bearing walls, you need to be rich. [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] Wise County isn't.

All the schools are small? Comparing Appy to PV, St. Paul to Coeburn, and Pound to WIse - there is a big discrepency in numbers. I feel my children are getting a quality education and so do you. Apparently we are both taking advantage of the dual enrollment - it may be easier for you to access but it is still available to the rest of the county. I don't hold the traveling distance against anyone - that is just the way it is. Consolidation is not going to promote samller class instruction. It just isn't feasible. Emphasis will be on technology not on human interaction because you can reach more through the technology. I will agree with you on the point of major road overhaul. I just don't see it happening but it would open the door for growth in all kinds of different ways.

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if You live already 30 min. away from your school

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That's why there are buses.

Another example: Many in Pound can be as far away as 30 minutes from the high school, but it takes maybe 15 or 20 minutes for those same people to get to Wise. Consolidation doesn't mean an automatic increase of travel time to schools. Some people are going to wind up closer to their schools, some further, and no change for some.

Is it really reasonable to deny our children quality schools (structure, classrooms, funding, added extracurriculars, better sports facilites, more classes such as added AP classes, other benefits) because you may need to travel 15, 20 minutes further? Are we really that lazy?

[/ QUOTE ] Actually there are a lot of kids who's travel time would be almost doubled. The kids that live on the Virginia-Kentucky state line already have a good 45 minute drive to get from their house to Pound High School, in good conditions. Thats just kids that don't ride the bus. The bus riders have the 45 minute drive plus the time for all the stops on the route. If they had to go all the way to Wise, it could easily take 2 hours just to get to school! [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/getsmile.tmp008106164.gif[/img] [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wall.gif[/img] Bus rides already take long enough. If I were still in highschool and these schools consolidated, I wouldn't want to be on a bus that long. I would start looking at schools in Kentucky just to avoid having to go through all that hassle. And I know several other people that would too. Then enrollment would start to decline. Which would lead to more problems. Fun stuff huh? [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beer1.gif[/img]

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Comfort. Personally it would be nice to go to school where you aren't burning up in the summer and freezing in the winter. Improved, more efficient heating and AIR CONDITIONING would also be nice.

Classroom size. More students does not have to equal overcrowded classrooms. New schools equipped with comfortable, larger classrooms make a better environment for students to learn and teachers to teach.


[/ QUOTE ] I hate to cry, but do you think anybody ever went to school without air conditioning? And if you are over-crowded, where are the Appy kids gonna be put? Mobile Homes, on the asphalt. The proposed renovations included a 160 seat ROTC room? Or maybe it was an area? Is the ROTC at PV that big? And the Dr proposed to put the extra kids in "portable classrooms." Just hang in there a coupla of years and you can vote and help pay for all this. [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] Cause at Basham and ...well 2 more I won't name's proposed rate of population decline, we can put ALL the kids in the 3 schools without adding anything, or just build one single A school. It makes much more sense, won't burden the county with a debt it won't be able to pay, cause if the children aren't there, it means the parents aren't there. And the working age folks are the ones that have kids and pay the bills. [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] Do it right and the trouble makers like me will fade away. [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] But I'm probably good for another 25 years. I'm all for education, but this is something the folks of the county are gonna have to live with , that includes you. It would be good to tie the colleges in for some of the advanced classes , for the long run. And , remember , I grew up in Lee County, you have a group from all the schools that are playing some sport that gives them something to do, keeps them out trouble kinda, and this is gonna end, if you combine schools. There is really NOTHING for the kids to do, you can't even drive around much with the gas prices like they are. Oh yeah, right now , about overcrowding- it isn't any further from PV to Appy than it is to Appy from PV, just change the bus route for the time being, till we decide what to do. [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

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Think again- the "first class study" that ran Basham out said that all schools, PV, Wise and Coeburn, too, had UNDERSIZED CLASSROOMS (2/3 of what was needed to bring the schools up to today's standards), meaning that class sizes need to be at least 30 kids to get the savings that were talked about. That was when the rest of the county bucked, couldn't renovate ANY school, MAJOR work , knocking out the walls and when you change the load bearing walls, you need to be rich. Wise County isn't.


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You may be right, but I took undersized meaning that the classrooms were too small for the students that are taking classes now, it didn't necessarily say they had to be bigger to accomodate more students. I know they are too small because I work in one everyday. What we've got now aren't adequate to maximize learning.

I'm not going to argue with you spudsmac, because from my experience in reading your posts over the years, you're pretty much one-sided, not open to any opinion other than yours. I'll just agree to disagree with you, and leave it at that.

My stance on this consolidation issue is that I'm willing to see the benefits and drawbacks of it. I'd rather see six brand new high schools, but......

Even though I believe our kids are getting a quality education now, kids quickly find out when they get away from here that they are lacking in some areas. As good as we like to think that on-line and video courses are, they don't compare to the experience of being in an actual classroom. We should be asking "What can we do to improve our educational system?"

This will probably be my last post on this subject because I can see where it's heading. If you state your opinion, there's always somebody that's going to say you're an idiot. I hope I haven't done that to the others that I have replied to. All of our concerns are genuie and need to be considered, but whatever happens, not everyone will be pleased.

We all love our schools and the communities that we live in, but we have to look at all the options and do what's best for the future of Wise County and the kids that will be our future generations.

In DC it meant student to teacher ratio. Can be different studies though. This is an interesting thread. Amongst parents and adults that is!!!!!!!!!!! [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

I went to school in the Dayton ,Ohio city school system. We had classes twice the size of these, somewhere between 50 and 60 kids. The rooms were an addition, double the old size and had a glassed in office in the back for the teachers. Two teachers shared each room , and taught two different subjects, you never really knew if the one in the office was looking out the window at what you were doing [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img], and they could use the time the other taught as a planning period. Not every class was lecture time and it worked quite well. What I got out of my 7th grade math class was good for most of the 1st year of Algebra here. And we worked off a triangle of students, the more advanced at the top helping the lower levels. Borken into groups, work at your pace, teachers roaming both sides of the 60 kids. Best classes I was ever in. The study was meant to suggest this, and this is not what was wanted- all new schools. I'd easily be for the best for the kids and the county, but at the same time there is a lot of mis-trust from what is already over the dam. The suggestion about altering the bus routes and filling up Pound and Appy with kids is an easy short term fix that would be as flexible as changing a bus route, not a lot of cash was what I was trying for till something could be worked out. Patch them all for now? Maybe, but how much will it cost, and how many jobs will the power plant bring? More kids? Is coal the fuel of the future? Less jobs? We have killed several years just sorting thru the last deal, and getting to the bottom of the mess.

No student from Pound or Appy or St. Paul would gain a single thing from consolidation, except an excessively long bus ride. And someone tell me how this would help them?

If it's not broke, (and it isn't), dont fix it. Plain and simple.

I get so sick of hearing the pro-consolidation propaganda... "safer" schools.. what a howler .. someone explain that one, last I checked we didnt have any booby traps or dangerous wild animals roaming the halls. Hah!

Better sports teams? Questionable at best.. a consolidated school does not always produce better sports teams, look at Lee High's football program for example. Actually, a consolidated school would mean that less kids would actually get the opportunity to play sports because there would only be one team per sport to play for, not two. These are just a couple of examples in a long list of flawed logic that argues for consolidation.

And as for our schools still being small schools, even if they were consolidated... IMHO, a school with more than around 400 kids is too big.

A school with about 200 kids is small. A school with about 500 kids is big.. and a school with over 750 or so is ridiculous. Not even to mention the absurd numbers of kids in schools in eastern VA.