WHITESBURG, KY. "? Letcher County Central High School secretary Lisa Wagoner says she doesn't know its 975 students as well as she'd like.

When Wagoner worked at Fleming-Neon High School, with an enrollment of less than 300 students, she knew them all. Not only that, she often knew their parents, and was aware of any personal problems that might be getting them down.

That's just not possible when you're dealing with nearly 1,000 students, Wagoner said during a Friday tour of her school.

"There will always be drawbacks to having a bigger school,"? Wagoner said. "But it's a necessity when you reach the point where you can't sustain your smaller schools. This gives us the ability to give students opportunities they wouldn't have otherwise."?

Principal Stephen Boggs agreed, saying the problems associated with losing smaller schools are "opportunity costs,"? but there's much to be gained. In the long run, Boggs says, the bigger school was the better solution for Letcher County.

Boggs and Wagoner said if they could, they'd rather have schools with enrollments of no more than 750 students.

Center of the community

Terry Sturgill, Letcher County Schools' assistant superintendent of finance and operations, says he was a supporter of small schools until he became principal of Fleming-Neon High in 1995.

"I saw that as a small school with 225 kids, we were not able to provide for our students,"? Sturgill said. "We were barely teaching core courses, and we had no electives,"? he added.

When asked if closing a small community school is a death sentence for the small town it serves, Sturgill said, "That's probably true, if you let that happen."?

It's all up to the community, Sturgill said, noting that old schools can always be turned into community centers or other public buildings that can still serve as an activity hub.

"If a community sits on their hands and says the community's gone, then that will happen,"? Sturgill added, pointing out that most of the communities in his county still have elementary schools which can also rally a community together.

"There's nothing harder than closing your high school,"? said Sturgill, a graduate of Fleming-Neon. But, he added, if Letcher County Central has a need, parents, businesses, civic organizations and others still respond just as they used to. "People here are all committed 100 percent to making this school a success."?

Boggs, Sturgill and Wagoner all agreed that closing high schools is far more difficult for parents and communities than for kids.

"After a day under the same roof, the students were fine,"? Sturgill said. "It's the parents, the communities."?

Wagoner noted that she hasn't seen any problems erupting from old school rivalries.

"Arguments and fights still stem from the same things they always do "? you were talking to my boyfriend, or you looked at my girlfriend,"? Wagoner said with a smile. "These kids already knew each other. They hung out together down at the Wal-Mart, and took classes at the technical school together."?

Students' observations

Rebecca Potter's seventh-period journalism class offered some thoughts on consolidation at the end of their Friday afternoon class.

When asked who thought consolidation was a good thing, only two of the 10 students in class raised their hands.

When asked to elaborate on the problems, some students expressed concerns with new, stricter rules at the new school.

An 18-year-old girl from Whitesburg said while she loves having a variety of classes to pick from and has made plenty of new friends, she finds it hard to make it from one class to another. At her old school, classes were close together, and students could stop and chat for a few minutes in the halls.

Another girl, who lives in Eolia, said she doesn't like living so far from school, adding that she must drive 20-30 minutes each morning. And kids who ride the bus have much longer trips, she noted.

One boy said he didn't like how the fresh air circulation system spreads smells. At his old school, he said, cooking scents from family and consumer sciences classes or chemical smells from experiments stayed where they were. At Letcher County Central, the heating, ventilation and cooling system spreads it room to room.

Students love the new technology, extracurricular activities and better lockers, other class members said, but many students feel the construction of the new school was too rushed, leading to sewage problems and issues with floor tiles.

Potter added, "I just think we all miss our old schools."?

Crime/truancy concerns

Two female students agreed that they don't like being "shut up all day,"? adding that they used to be able to walk outside during lunch or other free times.

Sturgill says that's a security matter that's necessary to keep students from dealing drugs from their cars "? a problem that existed in the older, smaller schools. He noted that stepped-up drug testing, cameras and other school security measures have kept Letcher County from seeing an increase in drug and violence-related infractions.

Boggs noted that a recent study by the county's judicial system found that incidents involving violence and drugs have actually gone down since the schools consolidated, but truancy and dropout issues have increased, especially in the communities that are farthest away from the new school.

Sturgill said he hates that some students must board buses at 6:30 a.m. to make it to school by 8 a.m.

"That sounds just awful, and if I had the final decision, I think I'd start school later,"? Sturgill said. But, he added, the school system hasn't had any real complaints from parents or students about long bus rides. "Maybe they just crawl on there and go to sleep,"? Sturgill said. "I know I would."?