SUMMERSVILLE, W.Va. — Two small Nicholas County elementary schools will close at the end of this school year.
During a brief, five-minute meeting late Tuesday afternoon by the Nicholas County Board of Education, it was announced that state School Superintendent Michele Blatt has authorized the closure of Birch River and Zela elementary schools.
Starting next fall, students from those schools will attend the new Summersville PK-8 facility currently under construction at Glade Creek.
The county has been under state control for the past year, so the decision was up to Blatt. The five-member Nicholas County Board of Education didn’t have the authority under state control to vote on the issue.
Late last month, Nicholas County Superintendent of Schools Scott Cochran said it was his idea to propose Birch River and Zela’s closures, based upon three main reasons.
“They are two small elementary schools with our lowest enrollment. We’re looking at the two schools with the lowest building utilization and we’re looking at two schools that we’re spending the most per pupil expenditure on students annually as compared to other schools,” Cochran said.
Zela and Birch River both now have fewer than 100 students. Cochran said the entire county’s student enrollment has decreased by 789 students since 2016, a 20.7 decrease over the last decade. Cochran said the county has lost $2 million in state funding in recent years because of the dropping enrollment.
Many community members, and even Zela Principal Andrew Thomas, pleaded with education officials to reconsider on October 26. One of their main concerns was a sharp increase to bus times for young students.
Thomas said some students could be on the bus 90 minutes a day each way.
“That could mean of upwards of 15 hours a week, approximately 60 hours a month and at least 450 hours over a school year on a bus! Over the six years they would attend elementary school at the new school, guess how many days? One-hundred 12 and a half days on a bus,” Thomas said.
Cochran said Nicholas County continues to see a sharp decline in students. This action, he said, is the financially responsible one going forward.
“The pace at which we keep losing students countywide is astronomical, statewide as well,” Cochran said.