Two years after the Fayette County School Board voted (3-2) to close Nuttall Middle School—and then repealed its decision with a reverse (3-2) vote just six months later—parents of the students who walk the hallways of the 82-year old school building are coming forward proclaiming they’re fearful their youngsters are being left behind.

“This is a school the county tried to close two years ago,” said Danese resident Michele Bennett, who has a son in fifth grade at Nuttall.

“The state kept this school open and I’d like to know where the state was when the doors opened this year. These kids have nothing,” Bennett declared.

Bennett says she was particularly disappointed when she received her son’s 2009-2010 class schedule just before school started.

“The word vacancy was printed for every teacher in his core subjects. The day school started, on a Wednesday, everybody was a substitute except the gym teacher and art teacher for my son’s grade level. He has no other permanent teachers. They’re all substitutes,” Bennett claims.

Bennett says her son’s core subjects—Math, Developmental Reading, English Language and U.S. History—are being taught by a substitute, since the school currently has two of it’s 10 full-time positions vacant.

“It should have been closed. There’s not enough students there to give them a good curriculum,” Bennett declared.

“The one substitute teacher who’s teaching all of my son’s core classes doesn’t know if she’s going to get to stay or not. These teachers don’t even know where to start in terms of planning the curriculum for the year.”

Nuttall Parent Vicki Buckland says she’s also concerned about her child attending the school.

“They don’t have enough textbooks so the kids are having to share,” Buckland said.

“My son is coming from a school where his education was top-notch (Divide Elementary School), and even in the first two weeks of school, I feel that he’s not getting the education that other kids are, because they don’t have the full-time teachers or enough books. We’ve already had two teachers and a secretary quit in the first two weeks of school. I just feel like all of the kids are being given the shaft.”

Hico resident Cindy Beeson, who has a fifth grader at Nuttall as well, says she’s worried about her son’s transition from elementary to middle school.

“We have all of these fifth graders making the transition, we’re like the largest class they’ve ever had making this change over to middle school, and they’re starting their year off with only one permanent teacher,” Beeson said.

“I’m concerned over the continuity. Yesterday, they had a new Science teacher for the first day, and they had five minutes of instruction time and got to play for the other 40 minutes. So, there was a day of instruction lost,” Beeson said.

“The kids in our entire county are being left behind. The school system needs to offer more challenging classes. The best way to do this is consolidation.”

Mother Shelly Allport says, “I think it’s very poor of our school district to not provide a full-time teacher.”

Also, Allport, a mother of a fifth-grader, says she’s received zero feedback from her child’s teachers since school started two weeks ago.

“I don’t know one of his teachers. They haven’t made any contact with me. I haven’t received study guides or anything. I’m not saying anything bad about the substitutes, but I think it’s really sad.”

Allport says she wants to know who’s teaching her child, and doesn’t like the fact that her son is required to share a textbook.

“They’re not allowed to bring them (textbooks) home for homework. It’s really sad. I think Nuttall is a really good school. I think it should be thought more of and not be forgotten, because our kids do matter.”

Hinton Village resident Janice Bostic, who has a fourth grader at Divide Elementary School, says she’s fearful for her son to attend Nuttall next year.

“They don’t have permanent teachers. You can’t get staff at that school, and there’s no communication or support system with the parents,” Bostic said.

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Fayette County Schools Superintendent Chris Perkins said that the students of Nuttall are not being put on the back burner.

“We’re supporting that school just like we would any of the others. It’s sometimes a struggle to get certified, qualified people in these areas of high need,” Perkins said, in reference to core subject areas like Mathematics, which NMS is currently looking to fill.

Fayette County Schools Associate Superintendent Dr. Serena Starcher confirmed that Nuttall Middle School retains 10 teachers on an annual basis.

There are currently “two and a half vacancies,” Starcher said.

One full-time position is for a multi-subject teacher and the other is an English/Language Arts and multi-subject position, Starcher said.

The “half” position is for a part-time Art instructor.

Starcher says parents should not be worried, even though two full-time, core subject teaching positions remain vacant at the small school.

Certified applicants have applied for both of the full-time positions, and both should be filled at the next school board meeting, which is set for Sept. 21, Starcher explained.

“It has nothing to do with a lack of funding. The positions are there; we simply have substitutes in them right now. Both of those full-time positions opened up late summer. We had two people transfer to other schools out of those positions,” Starcher said.

“You can’t stop that. People have the right to transfer based on personnel law in West Virginia.”

Starcher also added, “When we re-opened, working with our board, we identified improvements we needed to make at Nuttall Middle School to ensure the environment was suitable for student learning.”

Starcher says the school district recently spent an estimated $50,000 on upgrades including a new roof on Nuttall Middle School’s band room, a handicap accessible ramp leading into the gymnasium and a new floor in the gymnasium.

The school retains about 160 students in grades 5 through 8.

— E-mail: jayres@register-herald.com