Wise County school consolidation moves forward

In a somber meeting of the Wise County School Board Monday night, Betty Cornett acknowledged the reality that school consolidation opponents have fought for years: consolidation is happening.

“In the end, I have asked myself one question. That is, ‘Have I done everything within my abilities to keep all our county high schools?’ From my seat on the board, and with all the knowledge available to me from this position, I believe that I have,” said Cornett, one of four members of the eight-member board who have sought to keep all six county high schools open.

“I’ve never once wavered from what I believe, and I am a supporter of community schools, but that didn’t happen and it couldn’t happen,” she added.

The issue has divided Wise County for years, as residents of the county’s smaller towns fought to keep their schools open in hopes of saving their communities, even in the face of declining enrollment and failing buildings.

Cornett said she will support keeping athletic facilities in the three communities that will lose their schools under the proposal moving forward after a school board vote earlier this year to consolidate the county’s three smaller high schools into the three larger ones and rename the combined schools.

The names as of now: Union High School, which is a combination of Appalachia and Powell Valley; Central High School, a combination of Pound and Wise; and East Side High School, a combination of St. Paul and Coeburn.

Cornett joined the four pro-consolidation board members – Ted Thompson, Nolan Kilgore, Mike Mullins and Phillip Bates – to form a quorum at Monday’s meeting and approve a slate of proposals related to school construction.

The board approved the $60 million building program, which would construct new facilities for the consolidated schools, and a resolution to request funding from the Wise County Board of Supervisors.

The board also approved resolutions to begin the design/build process for the projects and resolutions to pursue Qualified School Construction Bonds and Literary Loan financing.

Additionally, the board approved personnel changes for the upcoming school year, including those related to the consolidation of schools.

Over the last few months, several board meetings were adjourned for lack of a quorum when the four anti-consolidation members did not attend in an attempt to keep consolidation from moving forward. Without a quorum, the board could not vote – and could not invoke the county-wide tiebreaker to overrule the absent members on issues related to consolidation.

With lawsuits filed in Wise County Circuit Court, the absent members sought to avoid discussion and votes on these issues. But consolidation opponents have backed down on their lawsuits; so far, two of the four have been withdrawn.

At the start of Monday’s meeting, Superintendent Jeff Perry made a point to define a distinction between the proposal taken up Monday on school construction and the vote earlier this year to proceed with consolidation.

“This is not a consolidation,” Perry said of the proposal to build new high schools in Wise and Big Stone Gap, build a new classroom wing in Coeburn, add a gymnasium to Appalachia Elementary School and allow eighth-graders from Appalachia and St. Paul to attend their respective elementary schools.

“We feel that a consolidation had already been taking place on a previous action of the board. Now we’re talking about building new schools for students at the consolidated school,” he said.

The board approved the project with one caveat: that students be allowed to revisit and either confirm or change the name choice of Union High School, after a claim surfaced that it was chosen as a reference to a high school in the fictional town of Mayberry from “The Andy Griffith Show.”

After the meeting, Perry stopped short of declaring victory over the impasse that’s divided the county for years.

“We always are under the realization that we have to continually work to ensure that compromises that are made are able to hold,” he said. “I know that some board members had to make some very difficult decisions, and I believe they were in the best interest of the kids.”

Perry said he believes the board’s action Monday will enable the county to build new schools. If everything goes according to plan, he said, a comprehensive agreement will be signed in about two months, construction will begin this fall and it will take about 22 months to build the schools.

“It is our hope that we can move on to the Board of Supervisors and have the Board of Supervisors approve what we did here tonight, thus enabling the county to move forward and put this issue behind us,” he said.

Mullins said he’s looking forward to “a fresh start” this fall.