When The Doors Close

Spelling is not a class past elementary school [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I think the solution to consolidation is a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick to the face.

You would have been consolodated in a room by yourself. [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif[/img] Welp heading to the jv game.

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The only thing it did for Lee County that was good was that Thomas Walker got a lot of new students that didn't want to go to Lee High. Just like J.I. Burton would gain a lot of new students from Appalachia.


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Thomas Walker barely has 200 kids. They're enrollment didn't jump too much. You can't just use Lee High as the only high school to look at when discussing consolidation. It has worked in several towns all over the country. Even if Wise County consolidates into three schools the student population would only be around 700 students which would be much lower than Lee High.

St Charles went to Pennington in the early 70s , didn't they? And yes, things were better for Flatwoods, Keokee and Dryden.

The VHSL lists Tom Walker at 270 and Lee at 840.

The Midgets must have 'consolidated' somewhere close to that time,,,but just going by what i've been told,,ha

It was sort of a necessary consolidation though wasn't it. Didn't St. Charles HS burn down or something, and that was pretty much the nail in the coffin that forced them into Pennington. Man I still wish all those Lee schools were alive and in the CD.

I'm pretty sure St. Charles merged with Pennington in 1970, I believe that's the year Don Williams started caoching there too. As for as the consolidation of the schools into Lee High goes, I don't think many believe consolidation itself was a bad thing, it's just as someone else mentioned how they went about it. Most(that I've spoken to, and read) feel there should've been two high schools (something like Lee East and Lee West) instead of one.

The cost of consolidation could be as much or more as renovating the old schools. If so it would be senseless. Questions should be asked about the physical maintenance of the existing buildings. If there are the problems claimed by the pro-consolidation people- What caused them? Shoddy upkeep or poor construction? I feel the decay of the physical plants of the schools has been much exaggerated. In other states much older buildings are still in use.
Pound and Appalachia do pay the same tax rate as the rest of the county- but a ton of severance tax money has gone out of these communities with little or nothing to show for it. If Appalachia could retain the severance taxes generated within its school service area they could have a good system of their own. Pound and Appalachia might be better off if they were not part of Wise County.