(As these are in todays Coalfield and there are some really nice pictures, I would recommend anybody who can, get the paper and see what they have)
General summation is as follows:
There are strong feelings in Wise County both for and against consolidation of public high schools. Our stories about Letcher County Central neither endorse nor oppose consolidation.
These stories explain why and how Letcher County consolidated its high schools. Thursday's edition will explore the academic and social results of that process.
At Letcher County Central High School, the hallways are alive with the hustle and bustle of teenagers, just like any other school.
But Letcher County Central High School, which opened in March 2006, is different from the three smaller community schools many of its students attended two years ago. It's bigger, it's newer and, for many, it's further from home.
Fleming-Neon, Letcher and Whitesburg High Schools combined at the beginning of the 2005-06 school year. Those schools, with enrollments of about 225, 175 and 700 respectively, were struggling to afford teaching the basic fundamental classes, according to Terry Sturgill, Letcher County Schools assistant superintendent of finance and operations.
Now, the teachers and students who once roamed the halls of aging, understaffed facilities that struggled to make ends meet are stretched out in a 150,000-square-foot facility, with state-of-the-art technology and security, Sturgill says proudly.
Principal Stephen Boggs and his secretary, Lisa Wagoner, have become accustomed to giving tours of their new digs. Wagoner, who led two reporters and a photographer on a tour Friday afternoon, easily pointed out all of the school's amenities, and had answers to standard questions at the ready.
Classroom space
The school has about 30 basic classrooms in its two-story classroom wing, all of which are fully wired for teachers to use their desktop computers as teaching tools.
Gone are the days of blackboards and chalk. Students take notes from Power Point presentations and other multi-media lessons prepared by their teachers. Each classroom is equipped with a ceiling-mounted projector and built-in speakers, so teachers can project DVD videos and other teaching tools onto a pull-down screen.
The whole school is set up with wireless Internet service for laptop computers and other wireless devices, Wagoner noted.
Science classrooms have both lab tables for experiments and areas filled with traditional desks for lectures. Lab tables have working sinks and gas valves, and each classroom has working fume hoods and safety stations for dangerous experiments. The school has four general science classrooms and two special labs, one for chemistry and one for physics.
Two rooms set aside for family and consumer science, formerly known as home economics, provide spaces for cooking, sewing, ironing and even childcare. The kitchen room includes six small kitchens, outfitted with gleaming stainless steel refrigerators, sinks, dishwashers, stovetops and ovens.
The school also includes a two-room family and consumer sciences area, a broadcast journalism lab, two large computer labs, two large special education rooms, three technology education classrooms, a foreign language lab and a business lab/classroom.
Fine arts offerings
Located behind the school's auditorium is a wing for humanities courses. The wing includes a 2,525-square-foot band room and an adjacent 900-square-foot space that serves as a chorus room and piano lab. Both are home to music and voice classes at a variety of skill levels, along with humanities courses, which expose students to drama and art history.
The music wing also includes plenty of storage, which is fully stocked with brand-new instruments purchased with a $75,000 grant from VH1.
In the classroom wing, two separate classrooms are dedicated to art. In those rooms, equipped with painting space, storage, kilns and more, three art teachers offer classes at three different skill levels.
Support spaces
Wagoner noted that a 5,800-square-foot library/media center is the "pride and joy"? of Letcher County Central.
The sprawling library, staffed by two librarians and a library assistant, includes about 30 new computers. Tables and desk spaces provide students with spots to do research, and are configured in such a way that three classes can meet in the library at the same time. Comfy couches and chairs also pepper the library for quiet reading.
The media center has its own doorway to the outside. Wagoner explained that that's partially due to fire code "? a space that big needs its own exit. But the exterior doors also serve as an entrance for community groups that use the library at night, Wagoner said, noting that civic clubs and sororities often meet in the space.
Also heavily used by the community is the school's auditorium, which seats about 650. It's fully equipped with high-tech control boards used to operate state-of-the-art lighting equipment and speakers, and includes a projector for movies.
The auditorium has side doors that lead into the school's 6,225-square-foot cafeteria, which can be used for intermission and concession sales during nighttime performances. Complete with an outdoor covered patio, the cafeteria is also used for the school's prom.
During the day, of course, the cafeteria is used for lunch. Students eat there in three different lunch periods, and get their food from a food court-style setup with display areas for cold and hot a la carte items. Cafeteria staff said Friday that student lunch sales increased significantly when the student body moved to the new school.
The school also includes a 25,000-square-foot gymnasium, which can hold about 3,200 spectators in two levels of seating. When bleacher seating is retracted, the gym floor is as big as three standard basketball courts, allowing three teams to practice at the same time.
Wagoner noted that while three sports teams practice downstairs, cheerleading and dance teams can practice on the mezzanine level of the gym.
Security
Parents can't mosey down the hall to visit teachers or find their kids "? they must go through the office to get into the school's high-ceilinged lobby, which is complete with a chandelier and statue of the school's cougar mascot. During the school day, all other doors are locked.
No one leaves the office without permission, and built-in cameras placed in strategic positions monitor hallways.
School security guards are on duty 24 hours a day, Wagoner noted.
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