Leaderboard

I know who you talked to. ;)

JMU offered Taymon this week

Poquoson has been 3A the last two seasons however, they dropped back to 2A with the new alignment. And, once again, it is no longer EAST/WEST, it will be back to the old four Region setup...

AES closing has been in the works a LONG time. I knew it was closing as early as 2011. A million dollars for a new gym was a small price to pay to get another $59 million for two high schools and renovations to a 3rd. Norton was offered everything they asked for in an attempt to get them to consolidate with Wise CO except for one thing. Norton demanded that the school be located inside of Norton City limits. Wise Co would not agree to this, so Norton walked away along with $30 million in savings due to a 15 year lock in the Local Composite Index. Norton could have maintained its city status as well. That was researched and hashed out. There were articles in the Coalfieldprogress about the AG's opinion on those discussions. St. Paul Elementary may never close since the cost of keeping the school open is basically equal to the amount of funding that would be lost when those kids leave Wise Co and go a few miles up the road to Russell Co. J.I. Burton's days are numbered because Norton isn't growing and the cost of education continues to climb. At some point they will simply not be able to afford to fund their schools. As for Eastside...who knows? I would say the odds are pretty even as to whether they remain open or close. I do believe that a vast majority of J.I. Burton's athletes will come to Union in the event of a consolidation/closure. Not entirely sure if a majority of the student body as a whole will attend Union. It could be a 50/50 split between Union and Central. It has been made abundantly clear via social media posts the last several years that many of Burton's kids are not welcome at Central. I also think it is clear that Union will welcome any and all of Burton's students. Another option that was proposed to Norton 6-7 years ago was for Burton's students to consolidate with Coeburn and St. Paul. This would have given Wise Co/Norton 3 high schools of very equal enrollment. That option was rejected by Norton officials for the same reason as the overall consolidation. The school wouldn't have been in Norton.