'Choice' changing Wise County schools debate

POUND, Va. – Among some parents and students, one word magically changes the flavor of the discussion: choice.

After more than a decade of bitter controversy over Wise County’s long-standing school consolidation dilemma, it’s part of the pitch being made as a solution to break the logjam and move the county toward a decision.

“I think everybody is going to be better with the idea of consolidation if they give them choice,” said Betty Robinson, as she waited for her grandson outside Pound High School on Monday. “Just so they won’t feel like they are being forced to do something they don’t want to do.”

In Wise County, the discussion has long been about whether to consolidate the county’s six aging high schools into three new ones. Like Appalachia and St. Paul, Pound would lose its school under the proposal.

A new proposed plan would keep all six schools open and give students in Pound and Appalachia a choice between attending older, community schools and new schools in the larger towns.

Robinson’s reaction was a common one among kids and parents Monday – they don’t mind somebody else getting a new school, so long as the choice is up to them about whether to attend it.

Superintendent Jeff Perry said he hopes the concept can help make a newly proposed school construction plan more palatable to the public than two past proposals, consolidation plans that were turned down by a divided county Board of Supervisors.

“The argument that some of the people against consolidation have are that the students want to remain in their communities,” he said.

“What the plan does is it gives the communities an opportunity to make a choice.”

Billed as a compromise, the plan would include construction of two new schools, one building overhaul and two minor renovations. And, unlike plans for consolidation, it would keep all six high schools open.

Perry said he believes the option, which school officials plan to present to the supervisors at 5 p.m. today, could be the answer to resolving years of disagreement that’s permeated all areas of county government for years.

“This issue has been so divisive that it has bled into … virtually every aspect of governmental services,” Perry said. “It has basically stopped a great deal of progress in every area. We’re not going to move this county forward on almost anything until we resolve this issue.”

A successful compromise, he said, would give enough to each of the factions and allow everyone to move forward. It would also leave the county supervisors, not school officials, to decide whether they can afford to keep funding six high schools in the face of declining enrollment and funding cuts.

The plan he’s proposing would build new schools at Wise and Powell Valley, replacing the county’s largest high schools at a cost of $28 million each; spend $10 million to completely renovate Coeburn High School; and put $1.5 million apiece into Appalachia and Pound high schools to add air conditioning and new windows.

The total price tag is $70.5 million.

For their money, the taxpayers would provide new schools for 71 percent of the kids in the county, Perry said, while providing a viable plan to maintain community schools. And, with construction costs and interest rates low, the school system could save as much as $30 million – roughly the cost of building a new high school.

Kids in Pound were confident Monday that their school would remain open under such a plan.

“There’s no air conditioning, but that would be OK,” said David Polly, a junior who said he wants to continue attending school in the building “because it’s home.”

Polly said that, given the option, a majority of students would stay in Pound rather than ride the bus to a new school in Wise, which is about 12 miles away.

Melissa Mullins, a single mother of three, including one high school freshman, said it’s much easier on her for her kids to attend school close to home. She said she’s talked to a lot of parents who feel the same way.

“The school hasn’t changed much since I’ve been here,” said Mullins, a 1990 graduate, “and we made it just fine here.”

But Mark Hutchinson, an educator from Appalachia and a staunch opponent of consolidation, said the plan is just another route to consolidation.

He said that will be the ultimate result if the county puts the bulk of its money toward the three larger schools and delays any renovation to the smaller schools – even adding air conditioning – until the end of the project.

“It’s not a compromise,” he said. “It’s a closing of the small schools.”

It’s particularly interesting that the plan includes the potential renovation of the existing J.J. Kelly High School in Wise for county office space – a school that, for years, proponents of consolidation have said is too run-down.

His position remains the same: He believes all six schools should be renovated.

J.H. Rivers, chairman of the Wise County Board of Supervisors, said he hasn’t made up his mind about the compromise proposal; he’s waiting to hear more today.

But he, like many on both sides of the debate, say they support the same thing parents do: education.

Denise Collins, whose son is a junior at J.J. Kelly, summed it up Monday. She said she wants “whatever’s best for the kids.”

dmccown@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0701