The hammer is about to fall

[MikMo]

Quote from the Coalfield: "Wise County Schools Superintendent Michael Basham says he intends to have ready for the March 8 school board meeting a recommendation on county high school consolidation." Is this the big decision we've been dreading to hear?

[Merlin]

"Dreading to hear" or not it appears it will finally be "officially" out in the open for everyone to hear and deal with. I'll be very interested to see what he's come up with this time. I hope it makes more sense than the $54 million fiasco of a few years ago and without the idiotic enrollment influx stuff that accompanied that plan, as well.

most people only dread hereing the stupidity that will come from apalachia others might not like it but they at least dont moan like the board bashers do

[MikMo]

Is that comment supposed to infer that Appalachia people are stupid?

only some of them i read the article in the coalfield today and where was the group they mentioned from appalachia

[MikMo]

So, you call those people stupid for coming out and getting involved in the consolidation talks? From my understanding, every time there is a school board meeting, there is a packed house, mostly people from Appalachia, just wanting to know the truth from the school board. I guarantee that if it was some other school in the district targeted for consolidation, their community would be out in force as well to support their school.....would you think those people to be stupid as well?

[Merlin]

I think Pound has been mentioned regularly, as well as, St. Paul, but you don't see everyone from those towns showing up on a regular basis (and no, its not because we don't care). The last meeting was intended to present the report on the Resource Review and was never intended to be a talk about consolidation, even though some tried to make it just that. I am willing to wait until actual proposals are released to pass judgement (which sounds as if it will be very soon according to Lord Basham's latest statements in the paper).

[R0cketer]

LOL on the Lord Basham

Yet on the 24th they received a recommendation.
Now in what two weeks their ready to present material on consolidation? Two weeks to do that?
I find that interesting, and i agree Merlin. I hope it does contain something that is not like the 2003, 54 million dollar mess.

Wise County Schools Superintendent Michael Basham says he intends to have ready for the March 8 school board meeting a recommendation on county high school consolidation. "We take very seriously a comment in the study saying it's time for the administration to make a recommendation," Basham said Monday, following Thursday's public delivery of the Commonwealth Educational Policy Institute's resource management review. "We're going through the data, and at the March meeting, we're going to be prepared to make a recommendation."
CEPI executive director William Bosher Thursday delivered results of his firm's look at Wise County schools to an anxious crowd of about 175 people.
Among other things, Bosher told the board the schools have done an excellent job developing the core curriculum but have limited offerings in accelerated, fine arts and vocational/technical offerings. (See related story on CEPI's observations.)
Language in the school system's contract with CEPI specifically stated that the study results would make no recommendation on school consolidation. It did not.
However, Bosher told the board, most of the conversations held during a November 2004 visit to Wise County centered on that contentious subject.
Speculation about consolidation "overrides all other discussions," the review states, to the point "it distracts from serious issues related to future resource availability and use that needs to be addressed by the school system, whether or not there is a consolidation of certain schools. In addition, there are key capital improvement decisions that are on hold until the issue of consolidation is resolved one way or another."
CEPI recommended school administration "complete its analysis of the consolidation issue as quickly as possible and make a specific proposal to the school board if it intends to do so. This will allow the school division to effectively address the resource issues that may also be a part of that discussion."
While the study did not specifically recommend consolidation, the benefits of closing schools were discussed. Bosher told the crowd that $200,000 per year in operating expenses could be saved for each site consolidated.
The crowd, which included of a large number of teachers, students and citizens from Appalachia, buzzed and chattered after this observation.
No time was allocated during the meeting for public comment. Questions from the county school board and superintendent were taken after Bosher finished his report. Reports were handed out to the board as Bosher prepared to deliver his presentation. They were distributed to the public at the conclusion of the meeting.
THE SIMPLE MATH
Aging county high schools, most from the 1950s, need extensive renovations to meet current and future education needs, Bosher said.
"The simple math for us is that if you save operating costs, you save potential costs for renovation. If a school is consolidated, you save in operating costs and you don't have to renovate that school," Bosher said. Savings in operating costs can be used to renovate existing schools or build new ones.
"If you had the money to do all of that renovation and keep everything intact, that would be great," Bosher said. "But I can only say to you that most of us don't have those kinds of options," Bosher said, and asked whether such renovations would be the right option even if sufficient money was available.
"There are some terribly tough decisions between here and there," Bosher told the school board. "I would hope you would deal with that decision as soon as you can. It takes the focus from other issues."
When the CEPI team members assembled after their site visits, Bosher said, "one of the first things we said around the table was 'What a great place.' That doesn't mean that great places don't have to continue to move and make tough decisions."
HOW SMALL IS SMALL?
"Some of the numbers are not going in the right direction for you," Bosher told the school board, noting the steady decline in student enrollment.
"I've truly enjoyed literature and research of small schools," Bosher said. He said that if asked personally how to reform high schools on a national level, he would recommend making them smaller.
While the argument for smaller schools is powerful, Bosher said, most of the literature is referring to schools of 400 to 500 students.
"My observation: If you had 50 percent of the high schools you have now, you'd still have 500 per school, and you're decreasing in population," Bosher said.
"How small is effective?" he asked, noting that significant resources are expended to support low pupil-teacher ratios and small class sections.
However, small, expensive class size is a difficult problem to fix when facilities are small compared to modern standards, Bosher said.
He also noted that while the system makes good use of some modern technology, many outdated facilities are not capable of supporting the technology necessary to provide a competitive education.
EFFICIENCY
While the study cited low pupil-teacher ratios and outdated buildings as problems, it also outlined things the system is doing right.
Transportation and food services were two areas Bosher praised. Both programs are efficiently run, he said.
"As the student numbers go down, unless you're paying the person helping to provide that service less, your cost per pupil is going up," Bosher explained.
If schools were consolidated, the biggest increase in bills would come in the transportation department, as some students would have to travel further to reach schools.
A big potential for savings outside of consolidating, Bosher noted, could be found in a non-resident tuition policy.
"There are enough students coming across the borders to represent the population of a school," Bosher said, noting that 444 of the county's approximate 6,600 students are non-residents.
While more students in a school system does mean more aid money from the state, each student still has to be paid for, and large amounts of non-resident students can be a drain on already tight resources.
"When you have so many non-resident students it equals one of your schools, you have to ask yourself, what if we didn't have that school," Bosher said. Tuition would help cover the cost of the extra students, he explained.