By Danielle Wallingsford Kirkland
“It was early 1935 and
all over Paint Rock Valley people were rock hunting. Large ones, small ones,
they were piled into wagons, washtubs, coal scuttles and hauled into Princeton.
Paint Rock Valley was literally building a high school, rock by rock.” – History
of Paint Rock Valley by Mary Sue Toney as it appeared in THE DAILY SENTINEL
April 29, 1979.
The word “community” is one that is often heard at Paint
Rock Valley High School. It’s been that way since the school began during the
height of the depression when citizens of each small community in the valley
gathered and hauled rocks from the fields for its construction. Though it
stands in Princeton, the school was named Paint Rock Valley High School to
honor the people of the communities who had contributed to the building of the
school.
Now, 82 years after the first class was held inside those
field stone walls, the school is facing its biggest trial. Today at 1 p.m., the
Jackson County Board of Education will vote on whether or not its doors will
close for good at the end of this school year. But the close knit community
came out in droves to the school’s auditorium Tuesday night in hopes that the
board will allow the school to remain open.
Loretta Harris has lived just a few feet away from the
school since her birth in 1937.
“I could hear the bell ring from where I lived,” Harris
said.
Harris, whose mother was a school teacher at PRVHS, grew up
hearing the stories of students bringing down rocks from the hills to help
build the school. She attended the meeting Tuesday night to support the school
she has always called home.
“It’s always been a wonderful place,” she said.
Not only did Harris,
as well as her sisters, children and several grandchildren, graduate from the
school, but Harris herself went on to serve as the school’s secretary for 20
years.
“This is my community,” Harris said.”I’m still very
connected to the school. I love it, and it’s just a part of me.”
Harris said she does not want to see the school close. And
though it is small in numbers, it is just as good as any other school as far as
Harris is concerned.
“I feel (the students) get as good an education here as
anywhere else in Jackson County,” Harris said. “We have a lot of seniors who
receive scholarships and they always look forward to that.”
Superintendent Kevin
Dukes addressed the crowd at the meeting, and gave them a presentation about
the factors that contributed to his recommendation that the school be closed.
“It’s not a good situation,” Dukes said. “It’s tough on the
community and it’s tough on the people making the decisions.”
Several of the school faculty members and community
supporters gave presentations as well, many making a case for the board to
allow them to remain open at least one more year.
Teacher Stacey Miller presented the board with the plan to
move the school forward with place based learning, explaining how teachers
could use Paint Rock Valley itself as a classroom.
“Place based education is an approach to education that
takes students out into the community to learn and grow as human beings,”
Miller said. “It gives them the opportunity to learn subject matter in a deep
and lasting way.”
Another PRVHS teacher, Danielle Potts, explained how a
teacher from A&M University will help the school fund its place based education
program with grant money.
“He said, ‘Do not worry about funds for place based
learning. If they will keep you open, we can have it funded by August,’” Potts
said. “We are really confident that if you give us a chance, we can pull this
off.”
Community member and parent Stacy Prince addressed the board
members about the numbers they have presented in recent weeks regarding per
student costs of keeping the school open. Prince said that at a board meeting on March
16, CSFO Jeff Middleton said Paint Rock Valley High School spends $432,148 more
than any other school in the county to educate its students.
Prince said she feels that number is much smaller when other
factors are considered.
“Should Paint Rock Valley close, 22 of our students will not
be going into the Jackson County School system,” Prince said. “They will be
homeschooling, going to Tennessee, Madison City, Madison County and Scottsboro
City, according to their parents.”
Prince explained that the county would lose $184,360 if
those students leave the system. She also said she believes the system will
lose two units, accounting for $161,000 in salaries, should the school close.
“We believe the actual number of savings if Paint Rock
Valley closes is $87,000,”Prince said. “We are asking you, the board, to invest
the money you would lose in funding, should the school close. We will do the
rest. We do not want to be a burden on the Jackson County School system. That’s
not our goal.”
Prince added that after a fundraiser to be held this
weekend, it is projected that the school will have earned nearly $20,000 on its
own.
“That’s a large portion of $86,000,”Prince said.
Shadrack McGill, former state senator, said he graduated
from Paint Rock Valley in 1994 and just last year built a new home in the
valley so his children could attend the school there.
“We enrolled our children in Paint Rock Valley School here
just to find there is a threat of closing the school down,” McGill said.
McGill expressed disappointment, saying he felt little has
been done by the board and administration to keep the school open.
“Ever since I was in 4th grade I remember hearing
they are going to close the school down,” McGill said. “It’s like we have never
had a board that supported us here in Paint Rock Valley.”
McGill, who said he has called state school board members as
well as legislators and the former governor to discuss the school in the past
few weeks, said he had several suggestions on how to increase enrollment
numbers and build the school back up.
“I’d look at rezoning,” McGill said. “We are allowing a
school bus from Woodville to cross over dangerous railroad tracks to pick up
students that would otherwise be going here when Woodville is busting at the
seams with students.”
Mike Sisk, current Jackson County Commissioner and lifelong
resident of Paint Rock Valley, said he did not feel that PRVHS students should
be transferred to an environment that would be unfamiliar to them.
“Until you have been a teacher here, or have had a child in
school here I do not think you can understand what I am truly saying,” Sisk
said. “Our kids here don’t slip through the cracks. They get the attention they
need. It’s a nourishing environment.”
Sisk too expressed disappointment in the Jackson County
Board of Education concerning the state of the school.
“We have had nine principals in the past 15 years,” Sisk
said. “It’s hard to set goals when you’re transferring over and over. The
school has been built by this community. It has never been taken care of by the
board of education.”
Sisk stated instances of the community gathering to clean
the school halls, varnish floors and repair bathrooms. He said once the lunchroom manager paid to
have the lunchroom painted out of her own pocket.
“I just want the board to realize this is our community,”
Sisk said. “This is what we want to keep together.”
When the meeting ended, Board Member Cecil Gant said the
presentations confirmed his decision.
“I will not vote to close this school,” Gant said.
Dukes said he understood why people were upset.
“Who wouldn’t fight for their community?” Dukes said. “We
have got to come to a conclusion. If it closes, we move forward. If it doesn’t
close, let’s move forward. But let’s drop the talk. It’s the only fair thing to
them, to get the peace of knowing one way or another.”
And the community will know one way or another today when
the board takes a roll call vote at 1 p.m. at the Jackson County Board of
Education central office.
*This story originally appeared in The Daily Sentinel.
