By Scott W. Harrison
Officials from Lexington, Buena Vista and Rockbridge County remain split over resuming talks about merging the three school districts.
Four months after preliminary talks between the county and Lexington stalled in May, Rockbridge County Supervisors Chair Ronnie Campbell said he would like to schedule more meetings.
“People may disagree with it,” he said. “But we need to look at this and see how it would affect the county and cities.”
Worried about how the sluggish economy would affect their budgets over the long term, school officials from Lexington and Rockbridge County began informal merger talks last spring. When word of the talks became public, Lexington Mayor Mimi Elrod asked to be part of them.
But the talks soon ended when Lexington backed out.
Elrod said the city did so because Lexington School Superintendent Daniel Lyons told her it would no longer be beneficial to pursue them.
In late August, Campbell invited the mayors of Buena Vista and Lexington to reopen the discussion. Buena Vista Mayor Frankie Hogan expressed interest in doing so, even though his city was not involved in the earlier meetings. Meanwhile, Campbell said, Elrod did not respond to the invitation.
Elrod said she supports maintaining city control of its two schools because smaller, neighborhood-centered schools are best for the city.
“Schools give weight to neighborhoods,” she said. “I think if we lost Waddell [Elementary] and Lylburn Downing [Middle], it would hurt our communities.”
Lyons said he doesn’t think merging schools would benefit city kids. And, he said, a merger of the three school districts would not necessarily mean lower costs for Lexington.
“We would have to assume some portion of debt,” he said. “We think that would far outweigh the savings from consolidation with the county schools.”
In an email, Hogan said there would be no reason for Buena Vista to go forward without both the county and Lexington on board.
Campbell said he still wants to pursue merger talks to see if joint schools are feasible.
Lexington City Council Member Mary Harvey-Halseth — who is running against Elrod for mayor — said she is open at least to bringing in financial experts to look into joining county and city schools.
“I would hope the conversation would be reopened and looked at in a different way,” Harvey-Halseth said.
The three localities face some crucial questions: Would the move save money? Would it maintain the same level of education for students? And how would the issue of county and city debt be addressed?
One reason Lexington became a city in 1965 was to run its own school system. And for those opposed to consolidation, the issue remains maintaining local control.
Jack Page, who served on both the Lexington school board and City Council, opposed the consolidation of Lexington High with Rockbridge High School and Natural Bridge High School in 1992, when the three schools became Rockbridge County High School in a new location and new building.
Page said centralizing the schools offers no promises of getting a better and more economical product.
“When you get bigger, you lose some things,” he said. “And there’s no guarantee that it will be cheaper.”
Lyons said he is also worried about ensuring the same quality of education.
Campbell said he simply wants to get together with Lexington and Buena Vista to talk about it some more.
“We may find out it will cost more and hurt our kids,” Campbell said. “I just hope everybody gets together to see if this will be beneficial if we go through with this process.”