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Turbeville, Wilson also shuttered
By MARY EVA CASSADA
Special to The News & Record
Turbeville and Wilson Memorial elementaries have joined the ranks of
Virgilina, Main Street Grammar, Mary Bethune and Rosa as shuttered
Halifax County Public Schools.
The pair brings to 10 the number of public schools closed in the past
five years.
The faces at Monday night's public hearing on the closing were new -
for the most part not the same folks who had protested the shuttering
of Halifax this past spring or Virgilina in 2003 - but their pleas were
similar: We like our small community schools, we loathe long bus rides
for our children and we don't want them at large schools.
The vote was 6-2, with Chairman D.H. McDowell and Arthur Reynolds
voting against the plan; Turbeville sits in McDowell's district and
Wilson Memorial in Reynolds.'
School trustees made no bones about the public hearing: Though required
by law, the citizen comments would not change their plan. The schools
had to be closed in order to balance the budget. Such tiny schools,
administrators stress, are not feasible to operate and sap away funds
for teachers' jobs and student programs. The budget was pinched this
year, they said, because of matters out of their control: raises in
health insurance premiums and retirement contributions and
all-but-mandated teacher pay hikes.
Close to 100 people came to the cafeteria at the high school. Thirteen
spoke, all opposing the latest closures.
While the atmosphere was civil if disgruntled, the most emotional
address was from Christy Watts, a parent of children at Turbeville.
"I am appalled at the actions and decision-making that this school
board has made over the last several years," began Watts. "You built
two new elementary schools, had the middle school redesigned,
overcrowded the high schools and cut off summer athletic programs. Not
to mention put this county in debt."
She faulted the spring's extensive overhaul of attendance zones as a
waste of taxpayer money and wondered why Turbeville and Wilson Memorial
were not closed along with Halifax a few months ago.
Watts called long bus routes "ridiculous. Once again, I don't think
the children were being thought of."
She also criticized the board for not heeding constituent wishes in any
cases of school closures "if you really wanted the community's opinion
a vote would be cast and the majority would rule, the American way."
'It's all just strictly dollars signs," she said.
Conway Goodman, who has spent decades volunteering with local
youngsters, said the board had "one by one chopped off" the small
schools.
"This has got to stop. It's killing our communities and killing a lot
of other things along with it," he said. "When the school closes, then
the post office and the next thing it's your businesses. You've got to
remember it's a ripple effect."
Thomas Hudson found it ironic that the board was closing schools to
save $600,000 "when we're right beside some $850,000 tennis courts," he
said, nodding out the cafeteria window. He faulted the board for not
sticking to a school-improvement schedule.
He and Jamie Hudson said problems like drugs and gangs could more
easily creep into a big school than they could a smaller school.
Tim Boelte said Oak Level Volunteer Fire Department stood to lose
current and future six-figure grants if its coverage area no longer
served Wilson Memorial.
Closures were "hurting the students, the parents and even the local
fire department," he said.
One thousand students - the maximum capacity of both new elementaries -
are "a nightmare," he said.
He also questioned the proposed 2007-08 budget, which works out to
about $10,000 per child, and faulted the board for wasting money on a
new boiler at Turbeville recently and a $25,000 etched glass at the
newly renovated middle school.
He clocked mileage between student homes and the new Cluster Springs
Elementary and said some children would travel 22 miles one way.
Fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Woody described herself as a Turbeville
graduate and said she had learned more at her alma mater than at either
the middle school or high school, despite their size.
Her mother, Tammy Woody, said the board's big decisions could not be
undone.
Karen Blanks, a mother of a child at Wilson Memorial, said her child
had flourished at a small school and questioned the cost of bus fuel
for driving students to schools farther away.
Jay Satterfield said big schools would lose parent volunteers because
950 children "is more than any one human being can stand."
Moreover, he fretted about the long bus rides on narrow roads through
what he described as dangerous intersections.
"I personally do not want to have to work on a whole school bus full of
children," said Satterfield, a volunteer emergency responder.
Mike Brown said his research showed that consolidation was not
beneficial. West Virginia, he said, had gone through a consolidation
phase but was now looking to re-establish schools.
Cheryl Watts, a former teacher who has been an outspoken opponent of
school closures around the county, told the trustees, "It's time to
stop manipulating people and programs."
She and others questioned the timing of the closure plans, coming after
school was out and with only two weeks' notice. She also asked why the
old Cluster Springs and Halifax elementaries might be kept open (for
pre-K and as a high school satellite, respectively) for fewer students
that they originally served, yet other small schools were deemed not
financially feasible.
The heartiest crowd applause was for Cleve Wilborn, a retired Halifax
businessman and former Supervisor. He recounted the oft-cited anecdote
of when Schools Superintendent "Mr. Rhoderick Lacy had four other
people in the central office" ran the school system. He suggested axing
well-paying central office jobs to save a half-million dollars.
Trustees briefly may have given the crowd false hope by asking a few
what-if questions of Superintendent Paul Stapleton: If the schools were
kept open, how would the budget be balanced? (Cutting 30 more
personnel, including, most likely teachers.) If pre-K were axed, would
that save money? (No, pre-K is funded solely through state and federal
funds.) Might the Supervisors shell out more? (Not likely.)
But the questions may have served mostly as explanations for their
actions.
Reynolds and McDowell both made brief statements about their opposition
to the plan.
Trustee Sandra Rister, who came to office in the wake of voter anger
over the closing of Virgilina Elementary School, told the crowd: "A few
years ago, I sat in chairs over there where you're sitting now" to
protest school closures.
Today, "It is a very hard decision to make."
She lay blame at the feet of tax-averse citizens.
"We hear from everyone that they don't want to have to pay any more
taxes for their lands, for their homes. They can't pay any more taxes.
So this is what happens when we don't have any more tax money," she
said.
Trustee Steve Anderson made the motion to adopt the budget with the
school closings. After an uncomfortably long pause, Trustee Kelly Hill
finally seconded the motion. Hill is not running for re-election in the
fall.
The vote approved the $61,890,099 budget for the coming year that
closes Turbeville and Wiilson Memorial and eliminates 19 positions,
none of them teachers. Also cut were summer sports camps; alternative
nighttime education; the after-school activity bus that transports
students home who stay late for extracurriculars; REACH, an Employee
Assistance Program that provides free psychological therapy to
employees; and the purchase of one fewer school buses (nine instead of
10).
Classes resume in August with five fewer fully operational schools: In
addition to Turbeville and Wilson Memorial, also shuttered are Halifax,
Washington-Coleman, C.H. Friend, South of Dan and Cluster Springs.
Opening are two brand-new schools in South Boston and Cluster Springs.