HUNTINGTON Ƶ Shawna Smith was the only teacher left walking the halls of Crossroads Academy on Tuesday.
Over the last week, since school ended for Cabell County Schools students, she has watched the teachers sheƵs known for the past eight years pack up their belongings and move furniture into the halls, but this time, it was for the last time.
Most of the teachers employed at Crossroads, Cabell CountyƵs alternative school, whose contracts end in the coming weeks will not be returning to the classrooms they are used to.
ƵItƵs depressing,Ƶ Smith said. ƵOur previous students, our students that we have right now, theyƵre upset. They are. WeƵve had all kinds of kids come back and say, ƵYou all have taught me how to straighten up and what I need to do to better myself. And if it werenƵt for you guys, I wouldnƵt amount to much of anything.ƵƵ
Earlier this year, the Cabell County Board of Education reassigned nine of the 10 professional personnel at Crossroads in a move that would force many students at the school to transition to virtual learning in the coming school year.
Smith said nearly all of those personnel were transferred or bid for positions at Huntington East Middle School. But for now, while she works in the summer food program, using Crossroads as her home base, sheƵll see classroom after classroom emptied.
Superintendent Ryan Saxe told The Herald-Dispatch the idea to move students online, which would affect an estimated 35-40 of the 95-100 students at Crossroads depending on the constantly changing enrollment, came as an idea when he noticed two or three requests by parents for their students to be placed in virtual school when they were expelled. Saxe said the board was also looking for more ways for the school to operate more ƵefficientlyƵ based on costs.
But Smith said the students at Crossroads have expressed to her they do not want to be online. Several teachers at Crossroads told The Herald-Dispatch their students could not learn or did not participate in online learning during the pandemic when there were few options.
ƵThey have sat right there and said, ƵI will stay home, and I will not get online, and I will be doing things that I should not be doing, but IƵm not going to learn,ƵƵ Smith said.
Curtis Mann, executive director for middle schools, alternative and virtual learning programs, said the virtual learning experience would be ƵdifferentƵ this time around since the board Ƶlearned a lot during COVID.Ƶ
But some Crossroads teachers who spoke to The Herald-Dispatch are not convinced.
Regardless of whether virtual learning is successful for students, Rhonda Wood, a teacher at Crossroads of 12 years, said the school has opened up many opportunities for the students in person that will no longer be available to them once theyƵre online, like reading groups, a gardening program, cooking, guest speakers and recovery resources.
ƵI think the main thing to focus on is all the future opportunities lost to those students who may attend in the future and who would have benefited from our program,Ƶ Wood said in a text message. ƵWe have saved and assisted so many students and have been a crucial drop out prevention tool for the county. We have hundreds of students who have taken the time to tell us how we were what saved them.Ƶ
Smith remembers going to a graduation ceremony last year when one student, who she said came into the program with a poor attitude, learned respect. He told Smith she was the only teacher who had ever made him feel he could amount to anything.
Smith even looked back on when the school was able to have small dances and watch movies with the students as a reward for behavior.
ƵWe didnƵt treat them like criminals,Ƶ she said of the students.
Wood said in the text message, ƵJust because they have made mistakes or have maladaptive behaviors and coping skills does not mean they should not be afforded the same in-person school experience, and that is what Crossroads does with additional focus on individual students.Ƶ
And while teachers like Wood have worked to afford all the same opportunities for the students at Crossroads as those made available to other public school students in Cabell County, Smith said the school was still often Ƶforgotten.Ƶ
For example, the school, which is in the second half of the Central Office Building for Cabell County Schools, is an older facility with visibly damaged furniture and, according to Smith and Wood, secondhand books and materials.
While having around 100 students in the school at any given time, there were still only 10 professional personnel, meaning teachers like Smith were teaching multiple grade levels and subjects with little resources.
Smith, a special education teacher at Crossroads, said she had around 66 special education students in the building this past school year, whom she was in charge of doing all of the paperwork and making accommodations for on top of teaching 28 course loads.
ƵIƵm teaching sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, 10th, 11th and 12th (grades), math, English, science, social studies, sometimes health, sometimes P.E., learning skills, reading, whatever they came with on their IEPs,Ƶ she said.
Smith said some of the staff at Crossroads had even asked for help from the board office.
ƵWeƵve all complained, we all asked for help,Ƶ Smith said.
When asked if teachers at Crossroads had recently made requests to progress the program following a board meeting in April, Saxe told The Herald-Dispatch, ƵNot that IƵm aware of.Ƶ
Smith said in a perfect world, the number of students at Crossroads would be cut down to higher offenses only, like drugs, alcohol and physical altercations. Or, the board would hire more staff.
She said, at one point, she even remembers an idea circulating that Crossroads could be moved into the old Career and Technical Education building once the Woody Williams Center for Advanced Learning and Careers is built, although the idea was never realized.
Despite the disadvantages the Crossroads teacher faced, Smith said she feels the school was ƵsuccessfulƵ in teaching their students and could have been more successful had their requests for help been granted.
ƵI am devastated about the loss of (the) program. I am more devastated about the future loss to our students and community,Ƶ Wood said in the text message. ƵI estimate at least 100 people have already called to ask them to not shut us down.Ƶ
Several teachers, Huntington residents, parents and even students have also spoken at board meetings about the changes at the school.
Next year, Mann said besides the GED and pregnancy program staff, there will be two teachers and three special education interventionists for the over 50 students at any given time who are not in those two programs.
Students who are online will come in one day a week, for which Mann said the board has kept the social worker and the Marshall University therapists employed at the school for behavioral and mental services. The school buses will not be running for these students, although man said Crossroads will offer TTA bus tickets.
