Residents say closure of Crichton Elementary would be ‘final nail in coffin’ for their town 

By Stephen Baldwin, RealWV

When the Greenbrier County Board of Education meets on Oct. 8, the five elected members will consider an agenda item related to the potential closure of Crichton Elementary School. With 89 students, Crichton has the smallest enrollment of the county’s eight elementary schools.

Item 5 on the agenda states, “The Greenbrier County Board of Education directs the Superintendent to compile the information necessary to make an informed decision about closing Crichton Elementary School at the end of the 2024-25 school year.” 

Board members will have the opportunity to discuss the agenda item during the public meeting before taking a vote. 

Why is the Board considering closure of Crichton? 

According to a statement released by Superintendent Jeff Bryant last week, the possible closure is in response to “financial challenges due to a decline in student enrollment.” 

“Enrollment in Greenbrier County Schools decreased by 160 (students) since the beginning of last school year, resulting in a loss of over one million dollars in state funding for the county’s public schools,” Bryant said. 

“State law requires West Virginia school systems to maintain a balanced budget and meet a minimum annual carryover threshold,” he continued. “Given the funding lost due to declining enrollment, the Greenbrier County Board of Education is evaluating financial efficiencies in all areas of operation to remain financially solvent and meet state requirements.”

‘Final nail in the coffin’

Residents of Quinwood, the town in western Greenbrier County where Crichton is located, say they are heartbroken closure is even being considered. 

“If this school closes our town will cease to exist,” says Cassandra Childers, who is the elected Town Recorder in Quinwood. “It would be the final nail in the coffin. This is all that the kids have.”

Childers knows it sounds like she’s exaggerating, but she says the town’s life is directly connected to the school. 

“Town Hall is in a school building,” she says. “So is the town library and the community center.” 

“This school means everything to the community,” she manages to say despite her tears. “I can’t watch my town shrivel up and die.”

The community speaks out

Parents of Crichton students expressed similar concerns over the weekend. “Crichton Elementary is an integral part of our community,” Cari Harper says. “The small school atmosphere helps our students grow and learn without being lost in the chaos that a larger school brings. It would be an injustice to our children to shut down the school and send them further away from their hometown. It is unfair to uproot them from their foundational school and throw them into an unknown situation. We cannot expect our children to flourish if they are shuffled around during their crucial developmental age.”

Autumn VanMeter serves on the Parent Teacher Organization for Crichton and thinks the school’s small class size is an attribute. “My son is in 4th grade, and he is autistic. He achieved scores on his 3rd grade assessments higher than the county & state average. I believe his time at Crichton, in the small setting that is adaptable to his learning style, plays a huge role in that.”

According to results of the WV General Summative Assessment, Crichton’s average test scores are slightly below the county’s overall scores. 

Abigail Bostic, a sibling of past and current students, says economics are an important factor in academic achievement. “Our community is struggling,” she says, “with a 47% poverty rate.” 

Board member points to WV Legislature

Paula Sanford-Dunford, an elected member of the Greenbrier County Board of Education, places responsibility for the potential closure with the WV Legislature. 

“As a board member, our parents need to know that the WV Legislature gave $27 million of unused state dollars to the HOPE Scholarship,” she said in an interview with RealWV on Sunday. “The HOPE Scholarship gives approximately $4,900 per student to the parents who choose alternative education for their children. Which puts less money in public education.” 

“This has unfortunately become the problem for Crichton Elementary,” she continues. “Homeschooling and private schools have played a major role in our declining numbers…The truth is all WV public schools are struggling.” 

Childers also points to the HOPE Scholarship as a possible reason for declining enrollment. 

“Enrollment is down mostly because of people pulling their children to homeschool,” she says. “If the guidelines for the HOPE grant were a little stricter, I think that wouldn’t be the case. I was told by Senator Deeds that parents don’t even have to turn in receipts from the $4,900 that they receive to homeschool their child. So parents are just being handed a check.” 

All students in West Virginia are eligible to apply for the funds if they are homeschooled or attend a private school. 

Statewide, public school enrollment decreased about 10% from 2022 to 2023. The data for the current school year won’t be available until later this fall. Greenbrier County’s student enrollment decline is less than half the rate of decline seen across the state. 

RealWV reached out to Senator Vince Deeds (R-Greenbrier), who also works part-time for Greenbrier County Schools in an administrative role, for his thoughts on Crichton’s potential closure. He did not return our request for comment. 

Sanford-Dunford said she and the board did meet with Senator Deeds and Delegate Jeff Campbell (R-Greenbrier), who is also employed by the Greenbrier County Schools, to share their concerns after Deeds and Campbell both voted for adding the additional $27 million into the HOPE Scholarship earlier this year during a special session.  

Delegate Todd Longanacre (R-Greenbrier), who works for the Monroe County Board of Education and represents much of western Greenbrier County, says of Crichton’s potential closure, “It is my hope that Greenbrier County Schools, in coordination with the DOE (WV Department of Education), has given due diligence to ensuring that whatever happens will be in the best interests of the students.” 

He laments the failure of Amendment 2 in 2022, which he says “would have given the people’s representatives–the legislature–final approving authority for all DOE decisions.”

The decision about whether to close a county school, though, falls to the county and not the state. Greenbrier County Board of Education members hold the authority and can only act on a recommendation from a superintendent. 

‘No one wants to do this’

“No one wants to do this,” Sanford-Dunford says of a potential closure. “Crichton is an amazing school with great students, faculty, and staff.” But she says their enrollment has been declining for a while, and the county finds it hard to justify running a small school at what she says is a cost of $1 million per year. 

“Closing this school is the last thing (we) want to do,” she continues. “My heart is saddened to even think about having to make a decision that will impact our small community.” 

Sanford-Dunford says she’s heard complaints from the community, asking how the county can afford school building projects elsewhere when they say they cannot afford to keep a school open. She says most renovations are covered by the levy and federal dollars. 

Crichton received $1 million in renovations in 2016

In 2016, Superintendent Bryant and the Board completed a $1 million renovation to Crichton. The WV School Building Authority contributed $900,000 and the county kicked in $100,000 for security features, new windows, HVAC repairs, roof repairs, and electrical upgrades. 

A press release from the grand opening quoted Bryant as saying, “In my interactions with Crichton Elementary’s students, teachers, parents, principal and community members, it is evident that this school is built on a foundation that all stakeholders are valued and loved. Crichton Elementary School is much more than a school. It is like home.”

What happens next?

If the Board votes to move forward with closure, state law lays out the next steps in the process. First, Greenbrier County Schools would have to put their reasons for closure in writing and deliver them to the school and make them available for the public. Second, a public hearing would be held. Finally, plans would be made to accommodate impacted students upon the school’s closure. 

The Greenbrier County Board of Education meets Tuesday, October 8, at 6pm in the Kyle & Ann Fort Arts & Sciences Building at New River Community College. Those desiring to speak must sign in at the meeting before it begins.