NICHOLAS COUNTY, W.Va.—— Last Week the Nicholas County Board of Education proposed to close and consolidate Zela and Birch River Elementary Schools.
If the school board votes to consolidate students from both schools would start going to Summersville Elementary School beginning in the 2025-2026 school year.
Chip Perrine
Board President Chip Perrine says that like other counties, declining enrollment rate was the main reason for the proposal.
“Numbers have dropped over the years but it’s getting so low now that we’re gonna have to do something about it,” Perrine said.
Currently, Zela Elementary only has 63 to 67 students and Birch River Elementary has 59 students enrolled.
And while these two schools have been on the list for consolidation for a while, Glade Creek and Summersville Elementary School will combine with Summersville Middle in the new Summersville Academic Complex they are building.
“There are two other elementary schools that are being effected with closure hearings but everyone’s happy about that, Summersville Elementary is in dire need of several things,” Perrine said.
Delegate Heather Glasko-Tully, R-Nicholas, elaborates on some of the issues that needs to be fixed within Summersville Elementary and the effect it will have on kids, especially those who ride the bus.
“It already has a lot of existing environmental and structural problems, as far as roofing, sewage, ventilation, those sorts of things,” Tully said on 580 Live with Dave Allen Monday morning. “It would also lengthen the bus rides for the students in Birch River, as well as Zela. Bringing some of those students from Zela from the far reaches of the county down 39 over Little Elk Mountain and bringing those young Pre-K students and Kindergarten students up from Birch River up over Powell Mountain.”
Tully also said that the board needs to make sure that they do these consolidations right, and consolidating elementary schools is not the right way.
“I think middle and high school, if you look at the educational research data on the building of literacy and numeracy skills, those occur usually in your first, second, and third grade, and those elementary school students benefit more readily from having smaller classrooms and smaller schools to build those literacy and numeracy skills,” Tully said.
Delegate Heather Tully
The county’s BOE held a public hearing last Tuesday, and Perrine said that it went well.
“The public hearings went well, both communities were very respectful, it didn’t get nasty, you know they had some hard points that they made,” Perrine said.
He also said that while they had some hard-hitting points, they also made some comments that weren’t true, stating it was about the money and that the board had already made up their minds in regard to the situation.
Perrine said that money was a factor, but he also wants to keep kids safe.
“A lot of it is about the money, but of course it’s not always about the money, you know we want our kids safe and healthy,” Perrine said. “We heard the public, and like I said we’ll debate it Monday night and make decision.”
The board will talk about and vote on the matter Monday December 2, at 4 p.m. This meeting will be open to the public.