The Shadow
The Alleghany County Board of Supervisors interviewed candidates for the new consolidated school board, heard teachers from Clifton Middle School plea to save their school and conducted other business on May 3 and 4.
The meeting that began at 7:00 p.m. on Tues., May 3 did not end until the meeting was adjourned after midnight on May 4.
Candidates for the school board were called in alphabetically beginning with John Butler and ending with Jacob Wright.
Other interviewees were Michael Duff, Gerald Franson, Patricia Jefferson, John Littleton, Danielle Morgan, Richard Shull, Robert Tucker and Robert Umstead.
The Alleghany County Board of Supervisors will appoint four of the 10 to serve on the new school board for the consolidated school system that will end the legacy of two schools and begin a new one for one of them.
Covington High School will become the consolidated school system’s new middle school, and Clifton Middle School will no longer be utilized as a school building unless current plans are changed after the new school board is formed.
However, the building that houses Clifton Middle School is only 12 years old, and it is situated a wall apart from the Mountain View Elementary School that was built along with Clifton Middle School.
Shannon Cox had prepared three questions that she asked each of the 10 who interviewed for the school board position, Dr. Ronald Goings posed two questions to each, James Griffith questioned each candidate about the importance each places on vocational education and Cletus Nicely inquired of each candidate to weigh in on whether or not the candidate supports or has supported the closing of Clifton Middle School.
Lorri Saville, a teacher at Clifton Middle School, represented a contingency of middle school teachers in attendance by advocating on their behalf to keep Clifton Middle School operating while finding another use for Covington High School.
Saville pointed out that Covington High School is older, and has more code violations that will cost more than $4 million to address compared to just over $800,000 for repairs that Clifton Middle School will need to make in order to comply with current standards and ADA requirements.
Covington High School was built in 1938 and has several thousand square feet less of floor space than Clifton Middle School, and Saville pointed out that CMS is both newer and more spacious than CHS.
While Nicely is adamantly opposed to the closing of Clifton Middle School, other members of the Council pointed out to Saville and the other Clifton Middle School teachers who spoke in support of keeping the school open that a compromise had been agreed to that would allow Alleghany High School to serve as the consolidated school system’s high school while CMS would close to allow CHS to serve as the middle school.
The heated discussion continued for more than an hour and the disgruntled teachers who claim that they were left out of the consolidation planning process left with at least one shedding tears.
Before leaving, Saville summed up the group’s feelings by saying, “We don’t understand why the kids were moved.”
She continued, “Our building, our colors, and our name have been taken.”
“It’s not fair to lose our building,” she concluded.
Director of Special Services Tammy Wilson followed by presenting reasons why renovations are needed at the Rosedale building that houses Special Services in Covington.
The building, which once served as a hospital and later as the Headquarters for the Alleghany County Public Schools, has deteriorated over the years, requiring many repairs.
Wilson noted that there are flooding issues, a lack of room for those who wait to be served, and problems with stairs that the elderly must negotiate.
Due to the midnight hour rapidly approaching with other agenda items to be dealt with, the supervisors tabled the subject and promised to address the issue at its next meeting in June.
In other actions taken, the supervisors voted 7-0 to refund a business license tax to Schaefer Rolls, 7-0 to appoint Reid Walters, the new Alleghany County Administrator, to various boards and commissions effective May 16.
Interim Alleghany County Pete Huber completed his report to the supervisors for the last time, and the supervisors approved a “Resolution of Appreciation” for him by a 7-0 vote.
In earlier action following the invocation by Shannon Cox and the “Pledge of Allegiance,” the approval of the minutes from the regular meeting on April 5 was followed by a report from Susan Hammond, VDOT resident engineer.
Stephen Bennett expressed his concern about the safety of truck drivers at night in negotiating turns at the intersection altered by the addition of Love’s Travel Center, and Hammond agreed to address the situation dealing with reflections that could make driving more dangerous at night.
Hammond noted that highway improvements are ongoing but that inflation is driving up prices of materials, and she cited examples, stone up 30 percent and pipe up 300 percent.
She noted that a six-year work plan is in place and that Rural Route 637 and Rural Route 687 are being repaired, and she revealed that Turner Road repairs are set for 2023 and Rumsey Road work is scheduled for 2024.
The meeting was finally adjourned after a thunderous storm had pelted the facility’s roof during a lengthy period of the proceedings.
