LOGAN, W.Va. — Many students in Logan are acclimating to a new school environment this year.
After a fire ravaged the Logan Elementary School building in February, the county school system pivoted and moved elementary students into the middle school building. Just last week, Logan County Schools announced that the elementary school building would remain closed and those students would continue attending classes at Logan Middle School. That announcement was met with concern from some parents, saying that there was limited communication before the decision came down.
It’s been a time of much change for students, parents, faculty, and staff. Despite that, both Logan Elementary School Principal Hillary Nelson and Logan Middle School Principal Bryan Kidd said it’s been a relatively smooth transition.
“It’s been truly wonderful,” Nelson said Monday on MetroNews “Midday.” “The teachers, administration, and entire school couldn’t have been more welcoming. They had to move our lives just as quickly as we had to move ours, make space, making sure that we were able to fit in. They went up and beyond to make sure that we were as comfortable as we could be, that the students were happy, and my teachers felt like they had a home, when they really didn’t have a home. They made sure that we were welcome here.”
Kidd shared that sentiment, saying that there’s been constant communication throughout the process.
“We’ve worked really well together, to be honest with you,” Kidd said. “Especially me and Hillary, we’ve collaborated quite a bit. Honestly, it was a big, seismic shift, but it’s honestly gone extremely well. Operationally, I don’t think I could ask for any better.”
There has been dedicated efforts to separate the two ‘schools’ within the same building, Kidd said. The elementary and middle students “never really cross paths” despite attending classes at Logan Middle School.
Kidd said there hasn’t been any complaint from the middle school children. He noted that the main priority was keeping the elementary school kids safe and separate.
“We’ve always tried to operate as two schools in one to begin with,” Kidd said. “But for our fifth and sixth grade being downstairs, and our seventh and eighth grade upstairs; we try to keep the big kids away from smaller ones. We’ve been able to maintain that with the seventh and eighth grade in the front hallway, and the fifth and sixth in the back hallway. We’re still able to kind of operate in the same ‘two schools in one’ setting, but now we’re actually literally two schools in one.”
Now, Logan Elementary operates downstairs and Logan Middle fills the higher level.
Questions remain about the previous Logan Elementary School building despite its closure. Nelson said the next step for the building is unclear at this point.
“The last I had heard, we’re still kind of waiting, I don’t know that we’ve really heard numbers yet,” Nelson said. “I’ve said, my focus is on the students, making sure the students are happy here and the teachers are happy here. The community has been amazing; they’ve poured out more than we could ever want or need to make sure that we were taken care of.”
The support from everyone within the community has made all the difference, she said. After the blaze set these events into motion, Nelson said many people stepped up and delivered when they were needed.
“We left that building in February and didn’t even have an ink pen to write down what we needed,” Nelson said. “Within days we were set to run a school. It was just truly amazing to see.”
The decision to move students to the middle school building was facilitated by the fact that both are on Midelburg Island, along with the high school.
“That was a huge thing, too,” Nelson said. “When the fire happened, and there was a decision made on where we were going to be; I think it was pretty universal that teachers wanted to be on the island and our students wanted to be. It’s such a special place to be over here, and we didn’t want to take that away from them.”
One parent of a Logan Elementary student, Shana Thompson, said last week on MetroNews “Midday” that she has respect for the county school board, but wants more information going forward.
“I respect them. I do hate this has happened for Logan Elementary, but we’ll get through it together,” Thompson said. “Please, be more transparent in the future, school systems. We want information and we want support for our children.”
Nelson said she understands that parents may still have questions or concerns. She said the phone lines are always open.
“I would tell them to reach out, to talk to their teachers, talk to us, come see,” Nelson said. “We would love to show parents just how safe their kids truly are here, and just how well this is working from the inside.”