Wise County Schools.

You as students and parents and taxpayers. Your options. Ok building and consolidation will be the same cost $54 million dollars. Let hear it for once from those on this forum and those who are looking in. Tomorrow night may be one huge night for Wise County. Let's get an idea of what to do.

[imported_six4three]

will it cause a big tax increase if we keep our schools as is, and only renovate them?

just wondering.

[Merlin]

If the SB is anything like our past BOS, they don't have a huge chunk of money just lying around they can use to "fix things up a bit." So, yeah, I think there will have to be tax increases regardless of the path they decide upon. But, as was pointed out in the Resource Management Review presentation, there are several was to raise the required capital for whatever path is chosen: Bond Issue, VA Literary fund, Loans to be paid back over time at reduced interest rates, tax increases, etc. It isn't out of the question that some "creative financing" methods couldn't be found to help the process. Ya know, like the Commonwealth of Virginia putting off paying some large bills into the next fiscal year so that the current fiscal year's budget would "look" better. It's an accounting "trick", but things like that are often used, especially in government, to help a particular situation. I would hope a combination of sources will be utilized to atleast spread the local burden out of several years to make it a little more palateable to most people.

Exactly Merlin.
Like i said and have said. It all needs to be looked at. Every aspect. Funding especially. This county cannot afford a huge mistake, and have to redo it in 20 yrs.
That is the cold hard facts.

Less than half of the 54 mil to renovate. And if you read the info on their website, it involves a lot of "new floorcovering, ceilings, lockers, not much in any real info other than that Appy was promised a renovation plan ,like the rest and I guess that dude at the last meeting was our turn at planning.

[33_phs_33]

i heard at school today that once they consolidated lb and wise...pv appy..etc that they were gonna eventually turn those 3 into 1 and just have 1 w/c school..this seems like it would take up soo much gas for buses and the buses would have to run SOO early to pick up kids
anyone heard anythign like this?

[imported_trumpet1988]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />

i heard at school today that once they consolidated lb and wise...pv appy..etc that they were gonna eventually turn those 3 into 1 and just have 1 w/c school..this seems like it would take up soo much gas for buses and the buses would have to run SOO early to pick up kids
anyone heard anythign like this?

[/ QUOTE ] I haven't heard anything about that but that's about 1800, 1900 students estimated right there. I believe that's AAA numbers? That wouldn't be very wise if they did that. Not at all. The closest AAA school to us is in Roanoke or somewhere and that would not be a good idea for sports. Consolidating all wise county schools would not be a good idea. You're right, though. They would probably have to run the buses pretty early and it'd be a waste of gas for parents, students that drive, teachers, and bus drivers.

Consolidating PV/AHS, JJK/ the LB, and Coeburn/St. Paul might not be a bad idea. But consolidating them all into just one HUGE county school would be going WAY too far.

[33_phs_33]

yeah thats what I said...but everyone was saying otherwise
i thought that this was absurd...i mean the school would have to be HUGE...and it just seems like it would be way too much money to even think about
just dont see it happenin...but i wanted to check and make sure

WISE - Assistant principals at the three high schools recommended for closure at the end of the school year by Wise County School Superintendent Michael Basham said Thursday that their teachers and students were taking care of their daily business of providing and absorbing a top-notch secondary education.

Officials in Pound, St. Paul and Appalachia said Thursday their townsfolk have just begun to fight for their schools, and there are a lot of sleeves being rolled up for the tussle ahead.

On Wednesday, Basham made public a recommendation he will make to the Wise County School Board to close high schools in St. Paul, Appalachia and Pound at the end of the school year. Basham believes the consolidations will make the school division more fiscally and resource efficient and improve curricular and extracurricular opportunities for all students.

A bill of complaint was filed in Wise County Circuit Court on Monday by residents of St. Paul and Appalachia seeking an injunction to prevent a recent independent resource management analysis of the school division from being employed by Basham as a means to recommend consolidation, as well as declare the board's hiring of the Richmond consultant illegal because they assert the board violated Virginia's public procurement law.

Basham has 21 days from the date of the filing to respond, but on Wednesday he issued a public response by airing his intended recommendation to the school board when it meets Monday at 6 p.m. at the J.J. Kelly High School auditorium.

All principals of Wise County's six high schools were in Charlottesville Thursday attending Virginia High School League meetings. But their stand-ins at the targeted schools were standing tall for the daily business of academics no matter the consolidation furor.

"If you walked in our school today, I don't think you would see any difference from any other day," said Pound High School assistant principal Preston Mitchell. "Our kids have known this was probably coming. We simply told them it's only a recommendation and that it must be acted on by the school board. Obviously, our kids don't want to go to J.J. Kelly (the high school in Wise), and that's a natural reaction, I think.

"But it's been business as usual today. The school board makes the policy, and the superintendent and administrators - like ourselves - carry it out. And right now the school board has not made policy. So we'll see how the school board acts and then we'll get worried."

"The mood here is we're just trying to focus on business. In other words, focus on education," said Appalachia High School assistant principal Joseph "Buzz" Akridge. "Our teachers are trying to do their job and just trying to do what we ought to be doing."

He said there was plenty of talk about the recommended closures in hallways. Besides that, students, teachers and staff wore yellow ribbons on Thursday bearing "Save Our Schools" tags.

"Some of the teachers are addressing it in the classrooms," Akridge said. "We're answering the kids' questions honestly. All we know is what we've learned out of the newspapers."

St. Paul High School assistant principal Robert England said the school and community do not permit gloom and doom to exist. Pessimism is a permanently banned characteristic in St. Paul, he said.

"I would say that our people are very positive. They are upbeat. This has done nothing, really, but establish a good, positive focus for us. We had a faculty meeting this morning, and the mood was very positive and enthusiastic and encouraging," he said.

"Nobody can argue that St. Paul hasn't consistently been one of the highest rated schools in the whole state in our (state Standards of Learning) scores. We were the first school west of Roanoke to be fully accredited in every area across the board. We've always been right there at the top in the county in SOL scores. We're tops academically, and we're competitive every other way, and we're proud of it. There's nothing but positive things for us to look at, and that's how we're going at this."

England said it was "unfortunate" faculty and staff learned of the recommendation through the newspapers rather than the school board.

"This has become, for one thing or another, something that takes away from the positive. But what we're doing with our faculty and staff as well as students is stay positive. That's just what St. Paul people do. We're the first team of Wise County schools, and we will continue to be the best school we can be," he said.

"I want to stay optimistic. There's a right way and a wrong way to do everything. There is a right way, and (the school board) is going to have to work out that plan and policy. A school shouldn't lose its identity, and a community shouldn't lose its identity, and teachers shouldn't lose their job. But there's a lot of positive things we can be proud of, and we're going to focus on that. We're optimistic the right thing will be done and our schools will be maintained. And if there is to be consolidation sometime in the future, then it should be done in the right way so students won't lose their identity and communities won't, either. My viewpoint of this is, let's do it in the right way."

Linda Logan, a member of the Pound Town Council, said a citizens meeting will be held in Town Hall at 7 p.m. Friday to plot their strategy to save Pound High School.

"We have a lot of concerned citizens and parents that are totally against this - even the idea of consolidation. The school board meeting will be Monday night, and we're going to organize and probably select a spokesperson to speak to the school board," Logan said.

"I am totally, absolutely totally against this. We always have been, and I think everyone in Pound feels the same way. We have the longest bus route in Wise County the way it is. Kids that live in the Flat Gap area get on the bus at 7 a.m. So if you add another, what - at least 20 minutes to Wise - you're going to be sending those kids out at 6:30 in the morning. Our enrollment has not dropped. Our school is not in trouble financially. We don't see a really good reason to change and consolidate. And (J.J. Kelly) is not that big. Mr. Basham has already said there would be a need to bring in trailers for extra classrooms.

"And we know (the J.J. Kelly) gym is small. Their gym is a whole lot smaller than ours. But the main thing is to bus our children that far. It would be different if they wanted to build a whole new school between Pound and Wise. Nobody would go to a whole new school with resentment, and they will if forced to go to Wise."

She said Basham described last year's school financial situation - thanks to an unexpected largesse in state funds - to be a "dream come true" budget.

"That school board is elected by the citizens of this county, and if they listen to what the majority of the citizens want, it is not consolidation," Logan said. "I might think differently about it if our enrollment had dropped drastically or we were in trouble financially, but that is not the case. And you know closing our school would have a tremendous impact on the towns financially, too, because we would lose water and sewer revenues, and those 30-some teachers will be out of jobs, not to mention the cooks and janitors.

"There's so much against it, I think. I really truly think the only feasible idea would be to build a new school, or build two new schools," she said, one to combine J.J. Kelly and Pound and the other to combine Appalachia and Powell Valley. "Call them Wise County North and Wise County South or whatever. But the way this is planned now, we're just going to fight this because we don't think it's necessary at this time. So, we'll see how it goes."

St. Paul Mayor Jack Kiser said he could "talk two hours about this" and none of what he would say would be in support of consolidation.

"In my personal opinion, this is an example of bad management over the years. They let the schools fill up and run down, and that's just not doing their job," he said of the school board. "We're not just going to sit idly by and let them close our school. We're going to do all we possibly can to keep it open."

Kiser said St. Paul High might have a few minor facilities needs, but no major ones, and the complex is probably in the best shape of all the county's high schools.

"Up here we wouldn't need anything for a long time as far as big overhaul jobs go," he said. "I just don't think they're looking at the overall picture. You know, there's a lot of town pride in our football teams and other athletic teams. We've not got a big band, and they'll not win any national awards, maybe, but we've got a small band that we're awfully real big proud of."

Kiser said he believes consolidation will go down in flames, and he would be among the first to light a match.

"I may be wrong, but I don't look for that to happen is my personal opinion. You've got a lot of emotions stirred up, and nobody is going to sit still and let this happen. I won't say they're picking on us, exactly, but with our facilities, our homecomings and school parades and athletics and all that, there's a bigger economic impact on the town than a lot of people might imagine," he said.

"You go to a bigger school and you do your studies and come home. You go to a smaller school and you're involved and a part of it all," Kiser added. "All our kids are a real important "?somebody' at our school, and you don't get that at a bigger school. Every kid is a special kid in St. Paul, and we let them know it, too."

Honestly i have no confidence in Mr. Basham or anyone in the Central Office many there are job scared. And yes about all the principals at most schools are gone.
And the school board. Well most cater to Mr. Basham.
In all honesty i will await the meeting Monday night.
If i get a chance to speak i will ask that Mr. Basham be removed as Superintendent, of Wise County Schools, even if it mean a buy out of his contract.
And i will address certain members of the SB, to not run for re-election.
They have no back bone to tell or control their employees. The Superintedent work for them not them for him.
Sorry if this upsets some.
But if i do get a chance to speak. I will say what i think and i will ask the following to not run for re-election based on their inability.
Mr. Caldwell, Mrs. Craft, and Mr. Franks and two other, this is not based upon thier views, but that they refuse to tell Mr. Basham he is wrong or help take control of the suituation, yet cater to the will of what is well now seen, as an out of control Superintendent. And one or two other members who are considered questionable.
If those who have the say so, cannot control the situation, it's time others who will say so, take or are put in their positions.
Mr. Basham has done nothing but disgrace and wreck havoic upon this County.
Time to let him go and may be many others ask to step down. They have no back bone to stand up and address a person who is their employee.
That is unacceptable on any level.