Lee High was built because of a projected drop in enrollment. When it opened it had 1250 students. Now it had 800, and would be much lower had the federal prison not been built. Keokee had a graduating class of about 12 seniors each year, and Flatwoods had about 20. Dryden was a little bigger, but not much. If those three schools were still around, and had lost one third of their students as Lee High has, it would be insane to keep them open. If you want to know if consolidation is enevitable in Wise County, all you have to do is look at the numbers in the elementary schools. If the enrollment at the high schools is going to keep dropping, the you may as well start making some sort of plan. By the way, I keep reading comments implying that Lee High is some sort of failure because of consolidation. There is a lot that is right with Lee High, and although there are some negatives associated with consolidation and it could have been handled differently, it was inevitable.