My thoughts on the Beverly Hills - Enslow consolidation

There's been a lot of talk in some parts of Huntington's East End and Beverly Hills neighborhoods of late about the future of middle school education. Specifically, if the people of those neighborhoods are to get one or more new middle schools the way people in other parts of Cabell County are getting them, where should it or they be built?

The school board is leaning toward building a consolidated school next to the Career Technology Center on Norway Avenue. A lot of people oppose that idea. I myself have questions.

Disclaimer: My daughter spent three years at Beverly Hills. My older son is in 8th grade there. My second grader could end up at either Beverly Hills or the consolidated school at some point in his academic career unless we move or put him in private school or home school.

But I took a look at all the angles, and this is what I have come up with.

There are values in small schools. However, Enslow probably is about as small as a middle school can be and still offer students what they need academically.

When the doors open on the new middle schools in Huntington, Barboursville and Milton, people in the Beverly Hills and Enslow communities will wonder why they don’t have such nice buildings.

Beverly Hills once held more students than a combined Beverly Hills-Enslow school would have. From what I know of the school as it is now, it must have been a crowded place. Also, the school does not have central air conditioning. Classrooms use large window units.

Beverly Hills is twice the size of Enslow. Thus, its community deserves as much consideration in this as the Enslow community.

Really, the Enslow community we’re talking about here is Highlawn. While Guyandotte and Altizer elementaries may feed into Enslow Middle School, the school itself is in Highlawn. Whether the new school is in Highlawn or on Norway Avenue may not matter much to the other two neighborhoods. In fact, the Norway Avenue site is probably closer to Altizer than Enslow is.

Bus traffic on Norway Avenue probably wouldn’t be much different than bus traffic on Saltwell Road now. And most of the buses that travel to Beverly Hills already use Norway.

We’re not just talking the future of a middle school here. Superintendent William Smith is talking about the future of Peyton Elementary. He talked about plans to consolidate Geneva-Kent and Hite-Saunders (what a hyphenated name that would be). In the past, the board has talked about consolidating Peyton and Geneva-Kent at the existing Beverly Hills building once that building was replaced by a new middle school.

Enslow is old. It would need too much work to upgrade.

People have talked about taking the board office out of the former Huntington East building and putting the new middle school there. From what I have been told, the HEHS building was a dreary place. It was not that well laid out. It sits beside a busy avenue. It’s not a good place for a middle school.

A lot of people have suggested other sites for a new middle school, but few of them are truly workable for a combined, consolidated school.

I do not like the idea of a school as large as a consolidated Beverly Hills-Enslow. It would have to be designed to create small environments that would prevent the problems that usually arise when you put too many kids in one place.

However, right now I see no alternative. I have considered several, but the question is whether they would work. I would prefer a school on the Cammack model in the Highlawn neighborhood, but that leaves 500 kids at Beverly Hills out in the cold.

There was talk in the 1990s about how building Huntington High School on Hal Greer Boulevard would have improved that neighborhood. The way things have changed in that area, I’m glad the new Huntington High was built where it is. The location is remote, but it’s a great spot for a school. And Route 10 is busier than Norway Avenue is.

Transportation issues can be worked out.

Schools should not be about the needs of neighborhoods. They should be about the needs of children.

So, after weighing everything, I have to say I now prefer the combined Beverly Hills-Enslow school at the Career Technology Center.

I'm not enthusiastic about that decision, but it's what seems to me to be the best for the children, including my future middle schooler.