cwood78 161 Report Share Posted June 6, 2012 announced today, ervinton high school is closed... attended school board meeting , packed room.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lance 228 Report Share Posted June 7, 2012 hate it...soon in the not so distant future, I'm sure my beloved Grundy High will be no more as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwood78 161 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2012 yea kinda sad. but i understood evrintons point, they had accepted the fact that the schools were to combine, we were alll under the understanding that all of the schools would shut down at the same time, and form a new one...but lack of funding, and lowest enrollment... acording to the board....something had to go...and that was ervinton. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redtiger 1,742 Report Share Posted June 7, 2012 I feel for the kids but Clintwood and Haysi will be more than welcoming to them, its just the begining of a transformation in the county imo. Â Basically it was run a barebones setup and layoff alot of people to keep all the schools open(Ervintons curriculum was barebones anyway) or close one school; simple decision imo, offer the best education possible to as many as possible. Â "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are" Theodore Roosevelt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwood78 161 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2012 i have to say...parents and students from ervinton have alot of resentment (guess i spelled it right) against clintwood and haysi, hopefully its hurt feelings..things like i get a 3.0 grade avg, wont get that a clintwood or haysi, or my son leads the football team.....won't do that at clintwood or haysi:eek: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwood78 161 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2012 at the start of community statements, the first person to speak suggested if ervinton was to be closed, changing the names of haysi high and clintwood high to ridgeview, as to i guess not to be associated with haysi or clintwood..:rolleyes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redtiger 1,742 Report Share Posted June 7, 2012 (edited) Ive heard Ridgeview East and West(dumb) and going ahead and changing the team colors w/ one being Black and White and the other being Turquoise and white(dumber). That would cost a fortune and really is pointless. Â Â I dont think this is possible this season but, what does it take for a school system to operate athletically like Bland Co does? Â Bland High and Rocky Gap High play together as Bland but are 2 seperate schools. Â For scheduling purposes thats not possible this season, but it may be something worth looking into. It would also ease consolidation down the road. Edited June 7, 2012 by redtiger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sixcat 2,942 Report Share Posted June 7, 2012 I feel for the kids, especially those in high school that will be most affected by having to attend a new/different school. I grew up in Fries and was in 8th grade when the announcement was made that Fries High School would cease to exist after the upcoming school year, my freshman year. Since Fries sits on the border of Carroll and Grayson Counties, with roughly half of the town lying in each county, it was a fight to see which county was responsible for sending buses to get the kids in the Fries area. Â If memory serves, the state eventually stepped in and declared each county responsible for its own residents and therefore, must send buses to pick up those kids. The old handshake agreements between the Town of Fries and Grayson and Carroll Counties as to where the cutoff point would be for school districts was no longer valid. It was years before the resentment subsided. I was sent to Carroll County where a Fries kid was in a fight almost every week. Kids were mainly repeating what they were hearing from their parents but the resentment contiued at Carroll until the majority of the Fries kids had completely stopped attending Carroll County schools. Â A few ended up at Fort Chiswell like Dyer and Derrick Jackson and a few others went to Galax but eventually, Grayson County realized how valuable the Fries athletes were and started getting the majority of the Fries kids to come to Grayson. The 1997 baseball state championship team is a prime example with the core of the team and 5 or 6 starters all coming from Fries. Independence High School was never dominant in any sport until the arrival of the Fries kids and that continues today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swvacsas2 15 Report Share Posted June 7, 2012 You are absolutely correct Red Tiger- to change names and colors at this stage is a waste of money. If a county is hard pressed financially it does not make sense to purchase uniforms, paint, and all the other accessories and use them for only a few years. Very few Ervinton students are going to be influenced by this stuff over the long run. Dickenson County will lose Ervinton kids over geography rather than school colors. Wise County spent a great deal of money at Coeburn changing colors etc.- to no purpose. A good deal of the Coeburn folk are unhappy and it did not help at all with St. Paul kids coming to Coeburn- after the 2012 class they may only have about 20 St. Paul kids. It is now pretty obvious that Wise County just did not have the money to spend on things like this. The school systems of SWVA have to be fiscally conservative and a great many are anything but fiscally responsible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted Account 5,203 Report Share Posted June 7, 2012 The school systems of SWVA have to be fiscally conservative and a great many are anything but fiscally responsible. Â You're only scratching the surface with that one, my friend... Â What I would love to say, but can't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redtiger 1,742 Report Share Posted June 7, 2012 You are absolutely correct Red Tiger- to change names and colors at this stage is a waste of money. If a county is hard pressed financially it does not make sense to purchase uniforms, paint, and all the other accessories and use them for only a few years. Very few Ervinton students are going to be influenced by this stuff over the long run. Dickenson County will lose Ervinton kids over geography rather than school colors. Wise County spent a great deal of money at Coeburn changing colors etc.- to no purpose. A good deal of the Coeburn folk are unhappy and it did not help at all with St. Paul kids coming to Coeburn- after the 2012 class they may only have about 20 St. Paul kids. It is now pretty obvious that Wise County just did not have the money to spend on things like this. The school systems of SWVA have to be fiscally conservative and a great many are anything but fiscally responsible. Â Youre right, the Coeburn people are VERY upset and I really cant blame them but I think it had to happen. Â lol the 2 biggest complaints I hear are the Green is ugly(which it kinda is, they need more silver on the uniforms or maybe add Yellow as a color) and "Wise got to keep their colors and mascot", the colors yes but Pound and JJK had the same colors, the mascot is not even close to the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swvacsas2 15 Report Share Posted June 7, 2012 There was no purpose in spending the large sum of money changing Coeburn's name and colors- if it could have been justified it might have been more popular. There was never any prospect at any time that more than a pitiful handful of St. Paul kids would go to Coeburn. A great many more of the remaining St. Paul elementary kids may leave the Wise County school system before long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redtiger 1,742 Report Share Posted June 7, 2012 looking back Coeburn definately shouldnt have been changed but at the time it was necessary. The attempt to unite Coeburn and St Paul had to be made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwood78 161 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2012 i was at the meeting, one of the parents of an ervinton student, in her comments,made the reference that several ervinton students or ball players were already working out with some clintwood students. which is good, if true,the students are doing better than the parents.:cool: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redtiger 1,742 Report Share Posted June 7, 2012 That will be the case, just wait and see. Â The kids all know each other anyway, its not like it was 30 years ago, or even 10 years ago for that matter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VHSLhelper 571 Report Share Posted June 8, 2012 Coeburn "had" to be changed or the rest of the county woulda raised cain about them getting "special treatment". Thing is, the rest of the county (taxpayers) also paid for it. With all the millions they'll have to fork over the next few years, I guess they didn't care about saving a few thousand. (Seriously, yeah, the change did have to be made.) Â What REALLY got me is that Powell Valley was a consolidated school... every time ppl. argued against consol., they were saying those things about PV. Â -------- Â "....things like i get a 3.0 grade avg, wont get that a clintwood or haysi..." VERY funny. What that says is Ervinton's teachers are easier on the kids or the classess are easier. Guess the kids just don't like being challenged, eh? Â -------------- Â "The school systems of SWVA have to be fiscally conservative and a great many are anything but fiscally responsible." Well, it's not like they had an open checkbook. Rem., it's "government" money that runs them, and anything left over in July goes back to the county, not to their piggy bank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted Account 5,203 Report Share Posted June 8, 2012 Â "The school systems of SWVA have to be fiscally conservative and a great many are anything but fiscally responsible." Well, it's not like they had an open checkbook. Rem., it's "government" money that runs them, and anything left over in July goes back to the county, not to their piggy bank. Â What would John McLaughlin say about this? Â Any takers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swvacsas2 15 Report Share Posted June 8, 2012 "Well, it's not like they had an open checkbook. Rem., it's "government" money that runs them, and anything left over in July goes back to the county, not to their piggy bank." Â Wise County has never had any monies returned to it. The school system claims to spend all of the county funds. Keep in mind that federal and state funds do not have to be returned to the local government. The vast bulk of funding to most of these counties is state and federal- in the '09-'10 year for instance out of $72,000,000 in total receipts only $13,000,000 came from local sources. Wise County schools had a balance of $7,000,000 at the end of the year- which they kept. The school administration claimed to be going broke when they were raking in this money. Â I don't think there would have been an outcry from the rest of the county if Coeburn had kept their colors. The antis wanted to save money and the pros would have gone along with anything the admiistration wanted. The whole point on St. Paul is that all responsible people in the town said the kids would not go to Coeburn and no inducement would cause them to go there. This has proven true. A lot of money would have been saved if someone had listened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redtiger 1,742 Report Share Posted June 8, 2012 (edited) What REALLY got me is that Powell Valley was a consolidated school... every time ppl. argued against consol., they were saying those things about PV. Â Â "....things like i get a 3.0 grade avg, wont get that a clintwood or haysi..." VERY funny. What that says is Ervinton's teachers are easier on the kids or the classess are easier. Guess the kids just don't like being challenged, eh? Â alot of the BSG antis didnt have a problem w/ consolidation in "the valley", they had a problem with the 3 on 1 concept. But some were anti everything and they didnt have ground to stand on! Â That arguement has been thrown out on multiple occasions; Ervinton parents are worried that their kid wont graduate in the top ten at Haysi or Clintwood and thus miss out on the prestige that comes along w/ that. They are just showing their asses, obviously their fight against closing their school is based on selfish reasons and not whats best for all of the countys students. Not all of the parents are like that but a great many are. Edited June 8, 2012 by redtiger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwood78 161 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2012 amen to that redtiger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swvacsas2 15 Report Share Posted June 8, 2012 " Ervinton parents are worried that their kid wont graduate in the top ten at Haysi or Clintwood and thus miss out on the prestige that comes along w/ that. They are just showing their asses, obviously their fight against closing their school is based on selfish reasons and not whats best for all of the countys students. Not all of the parents are like that but a great many are." Â It is only natural that parents would want their kid to go to the school where they can have the most prestige. Immediate family, extended family, friends, neighbors, town and community are generally the pecking order of concern to most people. Enlightened self-interest. Most people in this area are pretty good at helping others- but there are a lot of grizzlies in these mountains- around here you frequently need a keen sense of survival. A person would be pretty stupid to hurt their own family etc. to build up another set of people or community. People are caring around here- but you have to look after your own first- because nobody else will usually do it for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redtiger 1,742 Report Share Posted June 8, 2012 (edited) But "keep our school open so my kid can graduate higher" is a hard arguement to justify. Â besides, top ten out of 45 isint really anything to gloat about Edited June 8, 2012 by redtiger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swvacsas2 15 Report Share Posted June 9, 2012 There is a practical side to this. Being on a top ten list gets you more attention and at one time- less so now than formerly- would attract the attention of admissions officers and scholarship givers. This has changed- to an extent- but a top ten, valedictorian, etc. still generates the attention. Looks great on resumes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redtiger 1,742 Report Share Posted June 9, 2012 (edited) Thats why they were upset, and I understand their reasoning but thats not justification for keeping a school open. Â To keep Ervinton open, programs and course offerings would have to be cut at all 3 schools. Hurt 750(all of the counties high school students) to benefit 10? Not gonna happen, and frankly I think its selfish to even argue that, regardless of the benefits for your kid. Â Besides, wouldnt the kid benefit more from taking upper level mathmatics and AP courses? All of which if im not mistaken werent offered at Ervinton due to low interest. Edited June 9, 2012 by redtiger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwood78 161 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2012 the way i see it, if your a smart kid, got good grades at ervinton, then i don't see no reason why you wouldn't at haysi or clintwood....maybe some of them had it to easy at ervinton...don't know just speculation on my part.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.png.01bb665814ffc257795fe158cb2045c7.png.8a531ac878a82772b21014d7a6167582.png){kind=logo}
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.