I recently watched the state football playoff game between Capitol and Riverside High Schools. Since I graduated from DuPont High School in 1969, I must admit I was glad when Riverside won. But my feelings were also bittersweet. I missed DuPont, missed the old fight songs, the blue and gold uniforms, and watching my nephew kick field goals for the Panthers.
Still I believe this consolidation was a good thing. Time moves on. Once there was Malden High School, now only a memory of our older residents. Soon DuPont and East Bank will be as distantly recalled as Rivesville and Monongah, Gary and Welch, Mark Twain and Glen Rogers and Excelsior.
On the high school level larger schools can make sense, especially if the community supports them and travel distances aren't too far. But when I look at successful consolidations such as Riverside and Capital, I see schools located in largely urban areas. And most of our state is rural.
School consolidations have been much more controversial in places like Mason County and Pendleton County. And even long accomplished consolidations such as those in Pocahontas County and Preston County raise questions about whether our young people are receiving the full benefits of a high school education when they may be barred by distance from participating in extracurricular activities. And what of the hours spent on the school bus instead of studying or practicing band or basketball? What of school sizes which insure that only a few of the most gifted will be able to participate in such activities?
Consolidation is supposed to provide financial savings. But so far there is little evidence of that. Many consolidated high schools are operating in the red. Transportation costs eat up the potential savings of curricular consolidation. In addition, teachers are laid off and programs scaled back despite larger school sizes, as programs like block scheduling and School To Work eat into elective offerings.
What is most disturbing is that this trend toward consolidation is spreading to junior highs, middle schools and grade schools. Over the next few years, several hundred elementary schools are slated for closure. This is the result of formulas established by the State Board of Education and School Building Authority (SBA), not because of community needs or desires. According to SBA formulas, a grade school should have no fewer than 350 students. I believe 350 should be a maximum for grade schools. West Virginia is a rural state with small institutions. This is what our families are comfortable with, this is what our children are used to. To pack grade school children into massive educational factories makes no sense at all.
Small children should be attending school in their own communities. They should be in a school small enough that every member of the faculty and staff knows their name. They should be close enough to home that they are secure knowing Mommie or Daddy can come to them if they are sick or frightened.
Some communities may want and need consolidation, others may not. This decision should be made freely by communities and school boards, not by state bureaucrats with one-size-fits-all mentalities. And consolidation should not be an automatic solution to course offerings when we are finally becoming the beneficiaries of new technology such as the internet.
Nor should we consider consolidation the only solution for problems of declining enrollment. First of all, we should not accept the notion that enrollments will continue to decline. This is self-defeating thinking. If we can turn around our state's economy -- and I believe we can -- we will need all the schools we currently have and perhaps some new ones.
In the meantime, we should be creative. What about schools sharing teachers in subjects with smaller enrollments? What about sending children across county lines if a neighboring county's schools are closer?
Consolidation is an educational issue but it is also an economic issue. Communities which lose their schools lose the primary place where people in that community connect with and serve one another. Communities which lose their schools also lose the primary attraction they have to lure in new businesses and new residents. Communities which lose their schools are being given economic death warrants.
Our communities deserve to be able to serve our children. Our children deserve to be known in their schools. They deserve to be able to get to school without undue hardship, and to participate in the full range of activities the school offers. And most of all they deserve a state educational system which is committed to supporting excellence incommunity-based schools.
