but it was a good article about the possibilities of these buildings, remeinded me about the piece when we were talking about it in the other thread. So many possibilites, we'd have great schools and then great facilites, things would be a whole lot better for wise co.


WISE, Va. ? It?s an unfamiliar question in Wise County, where contentious debate over school consolidation has raged for a generation: If consolidation occurs, what?s next?

With votes cast by both the Wise County School Board and the county?s Board of Supervisors to proceed with a plan to close and consolidate five county high schools, some supporters of the project are already looking to the future.

?We want to look forward, move Wise County forward and improve the economic viability and sustainability of Wise County and the city of Norton,? said Donald Purdie, a Norton businessman and president of the Wise County/City of Norton Committee of 100, a group of business-minded folks who see consolidation as an opportunity for economic development.

Purdie said Wise County shouldn?t wait two-and-a-half years for the five high schools to be closed and empty before considering what the buildings could be used for next.

?We?ve got to start,? he said. ?You can take the negative of the loss of the high schools in the communities ? and turn it into a positive, and pull people into the communities from the private sector, where they will be contributing to the local economies.?

County officials, however, are cool to the talk of future uses of the school buildings, saying it is premature.

In an effort to get people brainstorming about the buildings? potential for each community, the group has put together a list of ideas. Among the proposals are a tourism center, manufacturing facility, college dormitory, culinary school and dental school.

In Big Stone Gap, Purdie said, the community might not wind up losing its school at all ? but rather trading in a dilapidated Powell Valley High School with shrinking enrollment for a brand new dental school in a refurbished former high school building.

?Why not Powell Valley for dental school?? he said. ?They?ve proved it works [with other professional schools in Buchanan County]. Why can?t it work in Wise County??

He said there?s also educational potential in Pound, where Pound High School could be developed into a culinary school.

?If you do some research on the Internet, you can discover culinary schools are on the uptick,? Purdie said. ?There?s a need for culinary schools, so why not??

In Coeburn, where the high school sits on a hill not far from Alternate U.S. Highway 58, he suggested manufacturing for green energy technologies.

?Solar panels have to be made somewhere, so why not Wise County?? he said.

For J.J. Kelly High School in Wise, Purdie said its proximity to the University of Virginia?s College at Wise could make it a natural fit for conversion into student housing, which could be arranged within the current layout of the building.

And at Appalachia High School, he envisions a tourism center, focused around the interconnected series of recreational trails being established in Southwest Virginia that he says have tremendous economic potential for the region.

?Appalachia?s going to be a trailhead, so that means they?re going to have to have an office and some headquarters,? he said. ?We talk about the heart of Appalachia. Where would the heart of Appalachia be but in Appalachia??

Purdie said he sees the potential not only for office space but for hotel rooms, an outfitter or store selling all-terrain vehicles and parts, and a museum headquarters for the area in what is now Appalachia High School.

?It?s nobody?s fault that things have changed [from the boom times of the past], they just have, and we need to change and adapt to our new situation,? Purdie said.

?There are those who say ? we?ve got to maintain the status quo, but I just disagree with that,? he said. ?I think that we can capitalize off of our history and our rich heritage and culture. We just need to think outside the box a little bit. I don?t think it?s na?ve to think that we can improve our lot in Southwest Virginia and Wise County ? it?s just going to take hard work, dedication and some ideas that are different from other ideas of the past.?



A model to follow

Wise County isn?t the first that might consider such a project as a dental school; two professional schools have already been developed in Buchanan County, and both operate in former public school buildings that were constructed in the 1940s.

Mickey McGlothlin, the county attorney, said the local government and school system worked together to turn the grade schools being left empty by consolidation into schools of law and pharmacy.

The Appalachian School of Law now occupies the original Grundy High School and Grundy Elementary School buildings, and the Appalachian College of Pharmacy occupies the old Garden High School in Oakwood.

?We found that we were able to remodel those buildings for a lot less than what people had thought to turn them into [professional] schools,? said McGlothlin. ?In looking at it, it seems there?s always this great desire to build these new buildings. ? Sometimes, you have jewels right there.?

He said the buildings underwent a process of complete renovation that included all new plumbing, electrical wiring, heating and air conditioning systems and windows and doors.

The former schools in Grundy that house the law school didn?t sit empty at all after they were closed in the 1990s; the process was planned for an immediate transition.

In Oakwood, the old high school building sat empty for five years, and though parts of the building were used, it sustained a lot of damage. The roughly $2 million it cost to turn it into a pharmacy school was assembled from county coffers, regional economic development grants, private foundations and individual donations.

McGlothlin said buildings that sit empty -- even good, solid buildings -- quickly go downhill because of vandals and lack of maintenance.

In fact, most of the schools closed over several years of consolidation in Buchanan County have since been torn down. Among them: Big Rock Elementary School, Harman Elementary School, Vansant Elementary School, Whitewood Elementary School and the old Whitewood High School.



But McGlothlin said the ones that have been developed into professional schools have done a lot for the county, with an estimated $50 million combined economic impact ? enough to revive Buchanan County?s once-dead housing market.

He said the presence of nearly 500 students and perhaps 100 employees at the two schools, and their families, has also enhanced the two communities in other ways. In a county that lost 70 percent of its school-age population over 30 years, he said, ?It has brought children back into the community.?

McGlothlin said that, with the nation?s shortage of dentists, a dental school could be a promising idea. But, in addition to a need, it also takes serious people who are willing to commit financial resources and an organizational dean who?s a top-notch educator in that field of study.

With Buchanan County?s success in professional schools, he?s less enthusiastic about the prospect of tourism or manufacturing uses for old school buildings. But he said the key to preserving a building for a useful purpose is to start out with a plan.

?You need ? maybe an advisory committee from each one of the towns, and you need some overall committee from the county ? to be studying this right now,? he said of any county planning to close schools as part of a consolidation plan. ?I think if you?re going to get these buildings in use, you need a game plan, a written game plan probably, of how you?re going to maintain them and what you?re going to do with them.?



This is still Wise County

Initially, Purdie asked the Wise County Industrial Development Authority to pursue a formal study on the potential future uses of Wise County?s high school buildings. But Bill Sutherland, the IDA?s vice chairman, said the authority had decided not to pursue it.

?We opted not to pursue that because that property was not ours,? said Sutherland of the schools that are to be vacated if the consolidation plan goes forward. ?It was kind of pie in the sky, I think.?

Sutherland acknowledged the heated controversy that has surrounded the consolidation issue in recent years ? and said there wouldn?t be much value in taking another look at something that?s already been studied to death.

?We didn?t feel like it was something to tackle,? he said. ?I think it?s just one of those battles that has to run its course.?

County Administrator Shannon Scott expressed a similar view from the county?s perspective: ?It?s way, way too early in the discussion process to attempt to discuss it,? he said.

Scott said consolidation would actually have to happen first ? and, at this point, while both the county?s School Board and Board of Supervisors have supported a consolidation plan with a 5-3 vote, a lot of things are still up in the air.

?Certainly, they?re just trying to look ahead,? he said of Purdie?s group of business people. ?But it?s not appropriate for the government officials to speak about it.?

Kenny Gilley, the IDA chairman, said if consolidation occurs, the buildings are vacated and their ownership reverts to the county, and the county asks the IDA to get involved, at that point the authority would.

?I think it?s going to happen the way everybody talks, but we don?t know that for sure,? Gilley said. ?It?s hard to market something that you don?t have.?

Wise County school consolidation raises questions | TriCities.com