BELLE, W.Va. — The Kanawha County Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday evening to close Mary Ingles Elementary School as part of a school consolidation plan.
The board voted 5-0 in favor of consolidation after hearing from members of the public at a hearing at Riverside High School.
The consolidation proposal, which came in early September from Kanawha County Schools Superintendent Tom Williams, had six schools closing, four of which were elementary schools. If voted on, the elementary schools, Mary Ingles, Belle, Malden, and Midland Trail, will consolidate into a large, new elementary school at the site of the former Dupont Junior High if the School Building Authority provides funding. The board also unanimously voted to close Belle Elementary School on Tuesday.
Brianna Sigman, a former Mary Ingles Elementary School student and speaker at the hearing, says the result was disheartening.
“I think it’s definitely disheartening for members of our community, especially ones that feel like this was a formality more than anything,” Sigman said Thursday. “I truly believe that this is going to negatively impact children in our communities, but this definitely isn’t the end of the conversation, it will go further, I’m sure.”
The board has held four emotional consolidation meetings in the past two weeks where members of four Kanawha County communities showed their frustration. In each hearing, after comments were taken from the public, the board held a question-and-answer segment with Superintendent Williams addressing some of the key topics brought up by the speakers. On Thursday, unlike any previous meeting, each member of the board addressed the audience and shared their disappointment in having to close the schools to keep the budget on track.
An emotional Tracy White, who had ties to Mary Ingles, said October has been the hardest month for her and her fellow board members.
“I just don’t want people to think we don’t care from the bottom up because we absolutely do,” White said. “This is not about us, but let me tell you, October has been the hardest month to sit and watch our people hurt. None of us ran to see you guys hurt and we didn’t run to break up communities, but we have to do what we feel is best for our county as a whole.”
Sigman says she understands the tough spot the board is in during the process.
“I definitely think that this is hard on everyone. I think being in the board of education’s shoes would be really difficult. There’s a lot of pressure from the communities,” Sigman said. “These schools are the heart of these communities, and everyone is so passionate about their elementary school.”
Aside from the passion for their school, supporters of Mary Ingles brought up a concern multiple times regarding their students moving to a larger school. The school that the board of education wants to build is expected to house between 600-700 students, and nearly every speaker expressed their fear of children slipping through the cracks.
Ashley Canaday, whose son attends Mary Ingles, says she is worried about students not having as much time for one-on-one learning with larger classes.
“I’m worried about larger class sizes and kids getting left behind, just because they have less one-on-one (time),” Canaday said.”
Canaday says that elementary-aged students are the most in need of a smaller learning environment.
“At that age, they aren’t able to really regulate, and tone stuff out as older kids are, and I guess to really focus if they need to. They’re still trying to figure that out,” Canaday said. “Even in a smaller classroom, some kids have issues and other kids have learning disabilities, and I worry about them getting left behind or not feeling as comfortable because there’s more people to be able to say, ‘hey, I need help.”
Sigman says students will struggle to gain good relationships with their teachers due to potential rotational schedules in a bigger school.
“They (the students) will have multiple different teachers, and that makes it really, really difficult for our students to gain a one-on-one relationship with our teachers,” Sigman said. “I think, even if we keep the class sizes small, they will be in a rotation from a very early age, so they’ll be rotating teachers throughout the day, and I just can’t see how that would be beneficial.”
Sigman also says the renderings for the potential new elementary school in the Dupont City area of Kanawha County look very nice, but it’s not what the kids need.
“I think that the new school concept is beautiful, I will start out by saying that, but if you really take a look at it, do you consider it to be an elementary school?” Sigman said. “I think we all need to ask ourselves when we look at this facility, is this what is best for young children?”
Mary Ingles’ librarian technician Melissa O’Dell says she doesn’t want the small school environment to be another thing her part of the county loses.
“Keep our communities together and keep a somewhat smaller school setting so that we can continue to meet the student needs in a setting where everyone knows everyone,” O’Dell said while holding back tears. “Our end of the valley has already lost so much from consolidation. From Montgomery to Charleston, it’s really, really sad if you sit and think about how much we have lost.”
The board announced on Tuesday that word from the SBA regarding funding for the potential new elementary school would come in mid-December. If funded, a fall 2028 opening is expected.
The next consolidation meeting the Kanawha County Board of Education will hold will be for Malden Elementary School next Monday, October 21.