sixcat

1) Bluefield 2) Graham 3) Ridgeview 4) Richlands 5) Union 6) Chilhowie 7) Grayson County 8) Galax 9) Virginia High 10) Lee Fort Chiswell would have definitely made my top 10 had they not been thrust into the impossible position of replacing a head coach 3 weeks before the beginning of practice. I still think they have a lot of talent but might struggle early until the new staff can get a foothold on where they are.

Abingdon defeated Martinez Evans (GA) 4-1 this morning and Coulwood Oakdale (NC) 14-4 this afternoon to advance to the championship game against North Springs (FL) tomorrow morning at 11 am. I work with two fathers and a mother of a couple of the kids for Abingdon. Pretty nice experience for some local kids.

I grew up with Fort Chiswell’s principal. He is a good leader and better person. They are in great shape in that department. He will do what’s in the best intrest of the kids.

Is Tiller the heir apparent to Mullins or simply returning home? Or both? He seemed to be building something solid at Fort. In two seasons he had two wins each over Radford and Grayson and victories over George Wythe, Galax and Chilhowie. Fairly impressive for a program trying to recover from the depleted mess Tom Hale left.

McClung is in a prime position to get a quality education at little to no personal expense. Anything in addition is pure gravy! Given 1.2% of all eligible college players get drafted while only 0.7% actually make an NBA roster, let’s wish the young man much success in pursuit of his education while enjoying four healthy seasons of major college basketball.

Just a few quick observations. Chilhowie is criminally low on that list!!!!!!!!! Union, Abingdon, Marion and Virginia may be slightly over-valued. Ridgeview, Grayson and Fort Chiswell may be slightly under-valued.

My favorite was the 2012 Galax at Fort Chiswell game. Four future D1 starters going head-to-head in Daniel Hamm ,Coleman Thomas, Steven Peoples and Caleb Spurlin. Fort Chiswell trailed 36-22 with less than a minute on the clock and Galax in possession of the football.................AND WON!

I won't go too much into detail but my company pays a higher amount in taxes for an office in Galax than it does for an office in Abingdon. The out-of-whack tax strategy in Galax is the key factor in Lowe's closing it's Galax store and building a new one a few yards up the street in Carroll County! Taxes are a double edged sward. You can go overboard and price yourself out if your'e not careful, which Galax seems intent on doing. After reading that article, I never knew Virginia was the only state where independent city's were separate entities than the county where they are located. It stands to reason, if so many of Virginia's independent city's are struggling to survive, why is this still a "thing"?

Interesting article from today's Washington Post. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/two-cities-share-a-name-water-and-a-library-but-one-is-in-big-trouble/ar-AAzsc2r?li=BBnb7Kz

I agree debt isn't necessarily a bad thing in-and-of-itself. But the real estate tax rate in Tazewell County is $0.055 per $100 of assessed value. It's $0.10707 in Mecklenburg County with a 3/4 cent increase coming in 2019. And they still can't afford to pay everything they owe!

This is a budget rather than debt service but still offers good insight into what's already a difficult financial situation in CharMeck.

Funny you should say that. He is actually house shopping as we speak in the Mooresville area. His job requires him to be within a certain radius so, parts of Mooresville are not an option. He seems fed up with what's happened in recent years in Cornelius. Especially given he essentially pays taxes twice.

I should also add, residents of Cornelius pay separate taxes to Mecklenburg County and the Town of Cornelius. Cornelius used only Town tax revenue to fund the new schools.

Maybe I should have been a bit more explanatory. I'm not attempting to be argumentative either so, don't take it as such! My brother lives in Cornelius, not Mooresville, which lies in Iredell County. Cornelius is in Mecklenburg County and is a part of the CharMeck school district. How does it make sense for the Town of Cornelius (population 28,500) to take on $245 million in debt immediately followed by the remainder of the CharMeck school district taking on an additional $2 billion for the same cause? To further compound those issues in Cornelius, they had an agreement in place at the time to have the Town of Cornelius control of the new schools given they had agreed to fund them. Which meant CharMeck wouldn't be permitted to rearrange school boundaries to send students from outside the Town of Cornelius to the new schools. CharMeck reneged on the agreement and immediately rearranged school boundaries before the new schools even opened. Using Hough High School as an example, the Town of Cornelius had the school designed and built to house 1,800 students. When CharMeck rearranged boundaries, kids from North Meck were rerouted to Hough where the current enrollment now stands at 2,572. Hough High School opened in 2012 and is already well over 30% over designed capacity! Now, Cornelius is preparing litigation to formulate its own independent school district. Which, incidentally, will cost the school district more money to fight in court.

I'm not familiar with WV, KY, TN and SC. The quick, simple answer for NC.....debt! Generational, chocking, crippling debt! The town my brother lives in outside of Charlotte has built 3 elaborate new schools since 2012 ranging in cost from $65 million to $98 million. My brothers great-great-grandchildren will still be repaying that debt. I believe the total cost was in the neighborhood of $245 million. The county also spent additional money on a series of public parks linking each of the 3 school properties together. The entire schools/park property is an incredibly beautiful space but is it really necessary? Will it attract more people to move to the area to raise tax revenue to make that expense worthwhile? I'm not sure but that's a huge debt service for a town of 28,500. In February 2016, Charlotte - Mecklenburg County Schools signed a $2 Billion Dollar agreement to build a series of schools around the county over the next 10 years. I get Charlotte is huge and continues to grow, but $2 billion dollars is an astronomical figure!

I was watching an interesting HBO segment featuring Joe Maddon on Youtube last night. First of all, Maddon is as intellectually gifted and cerebral as they come. The piece followed Maddon into his hometown of Hazelton, PA. Going back a couple of decades, the town had begun to deteriorate and decline. Schools were closed and consolidated with neighboring schools destroying traditional community pride and rivalries. What struck me in the piece is when Maddon started discussing neighborhoods and communities being tied together through the local schools (5:50-6:50 in the video). Maddon said in the piece about his childhood arch-rival high school being closed, "The fact that we had those traditional rivals was legitimate. The Thanksgiving football game was nasty. It was fabulous! No-more. It's self-destructive behavior when you subtract those kind of traditional events from a community". He correlates this "consolidation" of communities and schools to rises in crime and destructive behavior. I would encourage anyone to watch this piece. It's well worth the 25 minute investment in time.

As is the case with most SWVA localities, water, sewer, storm and electrical would likely need significant upgrades before a new school would be permitted. If roads and streets surrounding the proposed school site are sufficient, you're ahead of the game. The utilities are something Galax never considered. But they didn't listen to those telling them to look into it before making any decisions either. Now, they have a 54 acre parcel they paid 270k for they can't give away.

Depending on infrastructure improvements required for new school construction in the areas where the new schools could be built, you may be understating the total cost a bit. Highway improvements and utility improvements necessary for permitting for new school construction can run in the tens-of-millions-of-dollars. Add that to building construction and you could be looking at well over $100 million for two school sites! Ask Galax how shortsighted they were in considering everything entailed in new school construction!

Carroll is dropping to Class 3 next cycle. And are actually well below the Class 4 threshold. Population is dropping all around this area.

Worst kept "secret" in Virginia! Mark Dixon has officially been named boys head varsity basketball coach at Galax. Many, many other changes "officially" announced as well. Not the least of which, a new principal and assistant principal at all three schools! We're hopeful things will improve with new leadership but fear the wrong leaders are being replaced. Discipline has been a major issue in recent years, especially at the high school. The most recent elections were a glaring mandate on city council to effect change within the school system. We shall see if the first wave of changes are effective!

Galax has won 4 of the past 5 Class 1 soccer state championships. The current roster features 18 players below the junior level of high school. Could be a long run of state title contention.

As the old saying goes, where there is smoke, there is fire! This has been a hot topic across Virginia for several years because it's based in truth. I don't know the why's or the how's behind the policy shift in Augusta County. My former boss left Galax to return to Augusta County about three and a half years ago. His father-in-law passed away so he moved back to care for his elderly mother-in-law and parents. He grew up there and isn't a fan of the "manipulation taking place within the school system to give county schools as many opportunities as possible to compete on a state level". Those are his exact words in a recent letter to the editor. His belief is, they will shift boundaries slowly, so not to draw too much attention. Buffalo Gap will eventually become Class 1 along with Riverheads while Fort Defiance, Wilson Memorial and Stuarts Draft will be Class 3. The thought behind this is, Class 3 is more "top heavy" while Class 2 has a competitive balance unmatched in the lower 4 classifications. Class 3 would give those schools more and better opportunities to compete for state titles. I don't know if this is indeed true, but my former boss seems convinced it is.

Augusta County will rearrange school district boundaries in whatever way they have to in order for Riverheads to remain Class 1. They will eventually perfect the system so Buffalo Gap will fall to 1A as well. https://www.newsleader.com/story/news/local/2015/02/06/county-school-zones-changing/22978385/

Well played game by Honaker and Galax. The throw to the plate was an absolute thing of beauty. Tip of the cap to the center fielder and catcher. At least the players decided the game this time rather than dumb decisions by staff and administration!