BELLE, W.Va. — After an emotional public hearing, the Kanawha County Board of Education voted Tuesday evening to consolidate East Bank Middle School with Dupont Middle School with a vote of 3-2. The consolidation will close East Bank Middle School after the 2024-2025 academic year.
The hearing, held at Riverside High School, saw nearly 30 passionate public speakers from the East Bank community that all pleaded for more consideration for their school.
One of those speakers was assistant football coach Joseph Goodnite. After he addressed the board, he said he was waiting for what seemed to be the inevitable.
“An anticipation of doom,” Goodnite said before the board voted. “People outside of your area making decisions for your children, it’s out of your control.”
Kanawha County Schools Superintendent Tom Williams proposed six school consolidations in early September, citing a consistent decline in population and enrollment in the county over the last few years. East Bank Middle School closing down while its students move over to Dupont Middle School was one of the two consolidations involving middle schools in the county, the other being McKinley Middle School consolidating with Hayes Middle School in St. Albans.
Kanawha County Board of Education President Ric Cavender says school consolidations are never the desire, but sometimes a necessity.
“Obviously, none of us ever want to have to see a school close or be consolidated into another school, that’s never what we want, never what we want to see, but there are just instances where, due to our declining population, those tough decisions do have be considered and sometimes made,” Cavender said.
The proposed plan also included four elementary schools consolidating into one large elementary school at the site of the former Dupont Junior High School. The elementary schools potentially closing their doors at the end of the 2024-2025 school year are Mary Ingles Elementary School, Belle Elementary School, Malden Elementary School and Midland Trail Elementary School.
Each school’s community has a public hearing scheduled where those affected by the potential consolidations could speak, but every hearing ends with the board making their finalized vote moments later.
Goodnite says the process was not done the right way.
“I think it’s unfair,” Goodnite said. “The communities aren’t involved. You’ve got people that aren’t from here making decisions about here for the people who live here.”
Goodnite says he understands the process of consolidation and how it is often needed, but he wants it to be done in a different manner.
“It’s not that I’m against consolidation because I’m not,” Goodnite said. “It’s about doing it the right way. It’s about taking the time to make a decision.”
Ally Curry, an East Bank resident and current volleyball coach at East Bank Middle School, says the community knew this day might come.
“It is something that we feel has been expected for a long time,” Curry said.
Curry also says she has spoken to her students and players about the consolidation plans, and they feel, along with the school, opportunities are being shut down.
“It just feels as if they’re just shutting down the opportunity for them to pursue better things and have the opportunities that other schools have,” Curry said.
Landon Shy, an eighth-grade student on the East Bank Middle School football team, says he doesn’t want to see his school close.
“Very sad. I don’t want this school to close down,” Shy said. “I’ve played football for two years here and this year, I think we’re doing really good so far. We’re 3-2 so far and I’m hoping we can make the championship this year and I’m very sad about what’s happening today.”
Goodnite says putting all of the students together under one roof at Dupont may lead to lack of opportunities and bad situations for athletes.
“East Bank had 34 (football players) this year, Dupont had roughly 40, that’s 70, so if you’re going to have 35-40 on a team, what happens to the other 30 kids? Where are they going to be at and what are they going to be into because there’s nothing for them to do. That’s the problem, ” Goodnite said.
A multitude of the nearly 30 speakers brought up larger classroom environments that East Bank Middle School students will see next year when they make the transition. Curry says kids are apprehensive about the change.
“One of our biggest issues is they’re just scared of the amount of students that will be in each of the classes,” Curry said. “The more students that you have in a classroom, the harder it is to learn to focus to do all the things.”
Curry also says students may not have a seamless transition into Dupont Middle School, as East Bank and Dupont have been known rivals for decades.
“The natural competition and culture of the East Bank versus Dupont (rivalry) immediately causing strife in itself just because it’s the long-term rivalry that it’s always been, it makes people nervous,” Curry said.
Cavender says it was difficult to hear these concerns from Kanawha County citizens.
“When we’re hearing so many different perspectives from the community with so many different subjects related to this matter, of course it is, in some cases, difficult to hear because you are hearing directly from the folks that will be affected,” Cavender said.
Curry finished by saying East Bank Middle School brings together an already struggling community.
“I think you have to look at all of the community and the center of the community it brings,” Curry said. “We have a declining population anyways. The school itself, it has been, from the high school to the middle school now, it’s something there that brings the community together that, if it’s gone, you’ve just got more of the dying off of the valley.”
Cavender says he understands frustration from those in Eastern Kanawha County.
“I fully sympathize with and understand the Upper Kanawha Valley and the eastern part of the county,” Cavender said. “They had every right to feel they did tonight, there’s no doubt about that.”
The Kanawha County Board of Education will hold a public hearing Wednesday evening regarding the potential consolidation of McKinley Middle School with Hayes Middle School. That hearing will be at 6 o’clock at St. Albans High School.