Published: June 13, 2008 10:41 am      

Middle school parents debate: Keep kids in towns or build PVMS?

PRINCETON — Communities that would be affected by the proposed $16.5 million PikeView Middle School had their say this week during a grueling series of pubic school board hearings.

Though crowds early in the week were small, the numbers mounted by Thursday, and the majority of those who spoke were against the school that would reconfigure middle schools in the Oakvale, Spanishburg, Lashmeet-Matoaka and Athens areas. Instead of their own middle schools, students in grades 5-8 in each of those schools would attend middle school on the Gardner campus of PikeView High School.

Constructing PikeView Middle School was part of a 10-year plan completed in 1999, but little or no public mention of the proposal surfaced until last June, when the board voted to investigate the possibility of constructing the new middle school. This spring, over objections from board members Lynne White and Gene Bailey, the panel voted to seek $12.5 million from the West Virginia School Building Authority and chipping in $4 million in county funds.

During each session this week, Mercer County Board of Education members reviewed the plan they refuse to consider consolidation and fielded questions from the audience.

Speakers from the public were allowed to talk for five minutes before being asked to step down.

Oakvale School hearing

The first hearing was at Oakvale School on Monday. Approximately 30 people showed up for the hearing, with four people signed up to speak.

Rachel Lester, a parent, spoke out against the school and became emotional during her comments.

“People think it’s a done deal, and it doesn’t matter what we say. It’s proven that smaller schools are better,” she said, explaining she believed smaller schools provide students with a sense of belonging and increased bonding with teachers.

Oakvale Mayor Mary Nelson also spoke out against the reconfiguration. She said she was ashamed of the parents not at the hearing to discuss the dangers of riding a bus to PikeView.

“It will take extra money. We need to keep the children in the community and closer with their classmates,” she said. “They’ve already taken our high school children. We sit back and let that happen. Children aren’t treated the same at a big school.”

Kerry Stauffer, of Oakvale and an instructor at Bluefield State College, said he was in favor of PikeView Middle School. He said the middle school would offer more sports and opportunities for students. Stauffer said he went to Peterstown High School in 1989 because of a lack of sports offered at Oakvale High School.

“I want my two children to experience fine arts and have the opportunity, if they want, to be in a choral group,” he said. Those are classes not currently offered at Oakvale School.

At Oakvale School, girls only have one sport they can play — basketball, Stauffer said.

PikeView High School Assistant Principal Rae Shrewsbury said faculty and staff members there were in favor of a middle school.

With the middle school in place, the two faculties could ease the transition for eighth-graders going into ninth grade and high school.

“We have four different levels of education coming in to PikeView. We would like more cohesiveness in the education. With the middle school, that would happen. The middle school is a bridge between high school and elementary school,” Shrewsbury said.

Athens

Athens residents had a chance to voice their opinions during a hearing Thursday night, slated after the Times publication deadline, but local residents contacted by the Times before the session said they were not in favor of the proposed middle school.

“Athens School has been an institution for a long time with a high academic standard. Putting those students with other students will dilute those standards,” Dana Allen, of Athens, said.

She said the proposed school would result in longer bus rides and young children boarding buses by 6 a.m. She also worried that class sizes would lessen one-on-one attention from teachers.

“Smaller class sizes are better for learning. If the class size is too large, the students don’t get enough attention,” Allen said.

Another Athens resident said the school would be a waste of money.

“The community would lose its identity. Gas is high, and it would take extra gas to transport the students to the school. After being in each school involved, I think they’re adequate,” Rhonda Reece said.

Reece started a petition in Athens detailing some of the problems with a middle school. She said she is against the project. She said it would cause increased travel time, with some kids on the bus for possibly an hour.

“Middle schools have increased discipline problems. You have the kids from different schools, and they have personality conflicts. The kids don’t get as much attention at a middle school as they do at a smaller school,” she said.

Reece said she feels that, despite the hearings, the proposed middle school is a “done deal” in the minds of some board members.

Bill Skeat, of Athens, said it’s a forgone conclusion that the school will be built. He said by circumventing the process of having the public hearings before applying for the School Building Authority grant, many in the communities effected have lost their faith in the school board and its members’ willingness to listen to community concerns.

He said once the school is built, Athens School will have more room, which could lead to the closures of Sun Valley and Melrose schools.

Instead of sending students to the new middle school, Skeat said the county could send teachers to various schools to teach classes they might not have enough faculty for otherwise. Skeat said money in the county is instead spent on salaries for the superintendent, the assistant superintendent, the “director of this and the director of that.”

He emphasized he wasn’t talking about secretaries or others who work in the central office.

Spanishburg

A sparse crowd was on hand for the public hearing at Spanishburg School on Tuesday night. Fewer than 15 showed up to voice their opinion on the middle school project. Of the five people who spoke, Rae Shrewsbury again said the school staff supported the middle school. One other spoke in favor of the project.

Robert Lambert said members of the board and Dr. Deborah Akers went to small schools and did well for themselves. He said taking four feeder schools with kids from each school being allowed to play athletics and putting them into one would cut down on the kids who will get to play sports. “Others will be left out,” he said.

Lambert told the board members that PikeView High School was hard for him to accept. He said 14 years later after the school was built, the school is still being worked on.

“When you take the high school out of the community, you kill the community,” he said. “If you don’t have a child that goes here, how do you know what’s right for that child?”

Angie Hill said her kids go to Athens School, and she asked Akers a series of questions concerning the proposed middle school. She wanted to know about how the school would accommodate the growing Athens and Lerona communities and what facilities would the high school and middle school be expected to share.

Akers said the school could house approximately 550 students when built. The projections were based on growth rates for the county. She said the schools would not have to share computer labs or media centers, but teachers would be able to use both if one of the media centers had a video or book the teacher wanted to use.

Teresa Farley said she was very happy with PikeView High School and if the middle school was anything like the high school, then she would be happy.

Jim White, husband of board member Lynne White, spoke against the middle school during Tuesday’s hearing. He said the middle school would result in few benefits for parents and students, but longer bus rides for students and larger classes, where the students would receive less attention.

“The costs outweigh the benefits,” White said.

He said some members of the board were being arrogant in going through with the proposal, given how many parents in the affected communities are against it. White said it was a “travesty of democracy.”

Lashmeent/Matoaka

Approximately 25 people showed up for Wednesday’s hearing at Lashmeet/Matoaka School. Russell Mitchem said he’d lived in the community for 32 years and worked at both Lashmeet/Matoaka and PikeView High School. “I’m here to represent both sides,” he said. “Change is hard on everybody.” He said students prospered from PikeView High School, with many activities and classes offered that couldn’t have been at Matoaka High School. “As the athletic director at Matoaka, we provided one sport: basketball.” He said a new middle school can offer more opportunities for students who don’t excel in one sport.

Luther Smith, former assistant principal of the PTO and town council member, said the school received many awards over the years. He said the school offers fine arts and doesn’t need security guards, unlike Princeton Senior High School. “People voted you in office to represent us. You don’t know my children. You’ve never been in my house.” He said if the proposed middle school goes through, then the board would also try to consolidate K-5 schools in the communities affected.

Dr. Akers responded to questions Smith had about loss of employment by saying there would be no loss of employment for teachers or staff due to a new middle school.

Janet Heaton said she has a grandson that attends Lashmeet/Matoaka. She said it has a good facility and asked the board about bus rides for students from as far as Arista Mountain. “They’ll be on the bus a long time,” she said. She said although an activity bus takes students to PikeView for extracurricular activities, many parents in the area can’t afford the gas to pick the children up after the practices.

Karen Lambert, of Spanishburg, said that only the best will shine in academics and athletics at the new facility due to the number of students. She said as many as 80-120 students would be affected in playing athletics. “Look at the big picture,” she told members of the board.

Tracy Smith, PTO president, said members of the community thought the school was a “done deal” and some residents were wondering why they should bother attending the public hearings. She said students get more attention in smaller schools, feel they’re in a safe environment. Smith said students in K-8 schools behave differently, with older students taking care of younger siblings. In middle schools some of the students are concerned with establishing reputations, she said.

Michael Ratcliff spoke out in favor of the middle school. He said he was concerned about what the community would need in the future. He said he was glad board members acted the way they did, first asking for the grant before holding public meetings on the subject of a middle school.

Dr. Akers said more public hearings would be scheduled July 15, 16, 17, 21. Akers said a vote on the proposed school will be during the July meeting, instead of the one in June as originally planned.

— Contact Mark Blevins at

mblevins@ptonline.net.