Basham memo calls for closing Appalachia, Pound and St. Paul schools
BY KATHY STILL
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER
Mar 10, 12:00 AM EST
WISE ? Wise County's smallest high schools will be shuttered in June if Superintendent Michael Basham gets his way.
In a recommendation faxed to schools for release to faculty members at the end of the school day Wednesday, the superintendent wrote that he wants the School Board to close Appalachia, Pound and St. Paul high schools and lay off 31 teachers to save $2.5 million.
He also hinted that the county must decide soon whether it needs the three remaining high schools.
The recommendation follows nearly three years of School Board and administration denials that a consolidation move was afoot.
The board even affirmed by vote last year that it never considered school closures and that consolidation talk was just rumor.
Some School Board members who represent the three communities were livid Wednesday night.
"The recommendation has nothing in it about asking the Board of Supervisors for anything," board member Ann Gregory said. "It just means closing the three schools and cramming the students into (the three other) schools.
"I'm terribly disappointed, and I hope that this won't come to pass. It will damage three communities. Why the rush to fix something that is not broken?"
Mark Hutchinson, who represents Pound and Appalachia on the board, said Basham's recommendations make little sense.
The superintendent picked and chose recommendations included in a school resources study he commissioned to back up the consolidation plan, Hutchinson claimed.
"It says nothing about reducing (staffing at) the central office," Hutchinson said of another of the study's recommendations.
The Commonwealth Educational Policy Institute study said transportation costs would rise if schools were consolidated. It also indicated that declining enrollment and problems paying for the upkeep and operation of six high schools made consolidation a viable option.
In his memo, Basham claims that transportation costs would not increase. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday night.
Consolidation would give students the best educational opportunities, Basham wrote, adding that existing buildings cannot support curriculum innovations.
"I am convinced that we can accomplish both fiscal responsibility and program excellence only if we make the difficult decision that is so plainly before us today," the superintendent wrote.
According to Basham's recommendation, consolidation would allow access to creative writing, poetry, Appalachian studies, American studies, world studies, calculus and other arts and advanced classes.
The pupil-teacher ratio would be 20-to-1 or less after consolidation, Basham said. Hutchinson said the three high schools have lower ratios already.
The School Board meets Monday at 6 p.m. and likely will discuss and vote on Basham's proposal.
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