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Norton would have had no savings to taxpayers if they had merged under the county plan. Money to the school district doesn't help a taxpayer when he is stuck with the cost of the school systems debt. Wise County found out the hard way that consolidation does not save money unless it is exercised with a cutting knife. Norton's taxpayers would have derived no benefit from merging with the county.

Wise County paid theNorton IDA $400,000 for the Central site.

Haven't posted in many a year, but have enjoyed the repartee. The real reasons Norton did not come in with the county were the reluctance of the county to assume Norton's school debt, plus the belief in some quarters in Norton that the county did not have the money to build the schools without significant tax increases which would be passed on to Norton. The LCI money would have gone entirely to the county. In fact Norton would have not had a financial benefit from a merger.

Wise county is not a good example of fiscal responsibility when it comes to school consolidation. The county went on a spending spree with new schools and a capitol improvement program that was utterly irresponsible. The county postponed the reckoning by postponing the interest payment- at great cost- followed by a tax increase this year. In coming years the county will have significant tax increases to pay the construction debt. The proponents of consolidation lied to the public about tax increases and significantly misrepresented part of the county's revenue flow. You cannot save money by building new schools unless you make compensating cuts within the school system to absorb the cost, which most school systems are reluctant to do.

. Haven't been on the board in a long while- largely due to health and business reasons - but I appreciate the comments all have made. I live in Pound and was quite involved in the consolidation controversy in Wise County. I can assure you BearDawg that no one from Pound, especially Rocky Cantrell had anything to do with B.I. Salyers removal as coach. Everyone here was as surprised as everyone else. the reasons given for this action were silly. The front office and school administration wanted rid of B.I. The only involvement Rocky Cantrell had with athletics in the Wise area was an invitation to merge the Pound and Wise little leagues. The comments that have been made on the location of the school are spot on. There has been a significant reduction in extracurricular activities participation from the Pound area, I presume there has probably been one from the far eastern end of Wise as well. Technically Central was to be a Pound Wise consolidation- yet no meaningful attempt was made to build a school between the two communities. A school constructed at the J.J. Kelly site would have been more acceptable to most Pound people. Central exists in its present form due to a misguided effort by some members of the Wise County school board and administration to bring Norton into the consolidation scheme. Norton had the good sense to stay out. The construction expense has been terrible for the taxpayers and the location in a congested area is brainless. From the end of the war until the 1980's Wise actually had some very impressive football teams. The redoing of the attendance area once Norton became a city helped Wise considerably. In the 50's and 60's under coaches Bays and Lester Wise produced some very good football players, Al Stecker won a state championship in 1980, but was forced out as coach shortly thereafter. It is possible to have a winning team in Wise, though the competition is much tougher now. I might add that Wise actually went to court to prevent a move to AA in the possibly the late 70's or early 80's. This did not gain them a lot of respect. A major reason for the hostility of the other towns to Wise has been the spending of so much of the taxpayers money in the Wise area. The Appalachia area- the largest taxpaying entity in Wise County- has been especially shortchanged. All of the economic development in the county has occurred in and around Wise, paid for with other people's money. .

Have heard that Coach Mullins has been offered the Wise job. Should be interesting.

Would be surprised if Wise offered any allurements for either Dickenson coach. Lot of problems. Recent transfers from Wise to Clintwood would indicate a coaching change is not in the works. Dickenson will have a though choice to make between the two. It would probably be hard for one to be subordinate to the other. I would think Mullins probably has the edge.

Belfry won KY AA today 3- 0 over Wayne County. Good win for the Pirates after some tough championship losses. Hope Belfry will eventually play some of our local teams in regular season.

Lee 21 Union 14 at the half.

VDOE fall enrollment statistics. Can be located under Statistics and Reports on the VDOE site. The Superintendent's Annual Report for each year is also pretty good. For the 90's and before VDOE should have the figures- doubt they will ever post the older ones.

Thought I would throw out some Wise County enrollment figures from a decade ago. The PV figures are in line with sup_rbeast's estimate. PV enrollment '02-'03 school year: 9- 147 10- 131 11- 107 12- 126 Total- 511 There is no reason to think that there was a great variation in numbers from the mid-nineties on. Other enrollments were ('02-'03 school year): Coeburn- 412 Wise- 533 St. Paul- 192 Appalachia- 243 Pound- 246 The three smaller schools had stable enrollments until their closure ('09-'10 enrollments): St. Paul- 193 Appalachia- 249 Pound- 222

When the 1970 reclassification occurred they used hard numbers- 500 for A, 1000 for AA . These were based on 10-12 figures. It was possible to play up or down. Not counting the 9th grade helped a lot of schools stay in a lower class. Think things stayed this way until the '88 season and divisional play.

If you could find someone who had them the old VHSL handbooks have the enrollments- at least 10-12. Had an old '69 handbook and gave it away years ago- to my great regret. Coeburn suffered some heavy enrollment losses in the late 60's early 70's. I do believe they had over 600 in the mid 60's. When Vrginia reclassified following the '69-70 school year only two LPD teams were AA- Gate City and Kelly. Wise appealed- threatened legal action etc.- I believe they knocked the enrollment down enough to go A.

I agree with most of the points raised by the majority of the posters. Coach Robbins was 100% on the mark on his observations especially as towards Wise County, Earlier in the thread a comment was made that consolidation would help : "Nobody doubts that population numbers might have an impact, but when 15+ years ago, teensie-tiny schools in SWVA were trotting out rosters of 25 kids (or less) something needed to happen. If anything, more consolidation might be a good thing and benefit the schools athletic programs and budgets" One major problem with consolidation and athletic programs is the distance between house and the new school. This is as important at the elementary level as at the high school level. When gas prices are low and when you have a decent economy parents can afford to take the kids 5 or more extra miles. The economy in the Coalfields no longer permits this. It is a lot cheaper on a parent to encourage the kid to stay at home on social media or gaming than to transport them around. This is and will be a problem for all extracurricular activities.. I am familiar with some of the closed schools and it would be interesting to see what the spatial relationship would be between home and school of the current Riverview squad. Would presume most are from Grundy rather than the outlying areas.

Have a good friend and a cousin who have seen them in Wise County. Botg guys know animals and they can tell a cougar from a souped up bobcat.