Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

VALLEY — Chambers County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Sharon Weldon has been making the local civic club speaking circuit in recent weeks to update members of those clubs about the current status of school consolidation. She drew her largest crowd to date at the Monday meeting of the Valley Lions Club, held at San Marcos Restaurant. She talked about her meeting earlier this year with Federal Judge Keith Watkins, getting Joe Jolly on board to do the needed underwriting work for the new high school and where things go from here.

Among those present for the meeting were Valley Mayor Leonard Riley, Council Member Jim Clark and two Chambers County commissioners, Mayor Riley’s wife Debra and Sam Bradford, who’s a member of Valley Lions Club.

Dr. Weldon started her talk by saying that Leonard Riley had told her he wanted her to come back to Chambers County to teach when she was still in college. He was the Valley High principal at the time.

Weldon grew up near the banks of the Chattahoochee River in the Langdale community, went to kindergarten when it was in the Cotton Duck and learned how hyperactive kids were dealt with back then. She had to sit still while out on the playground. That condition is now known as Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD. It’s fairly common and treatable at a young age with medication and talk therapy.

At Lafayette Lanier Elementary School, Weldon discovered a gift for math, something that led to her being a math teacher in two schools she had attended in Valley, W.F. Burns and Valley High.

She moved up through the career ladder to being an assistant principal, principal and director of secondary schools before running for and winning an election for county superintendent.

“I want to thank the voters of Chambers County for the trust they have placed in me to be the superintendent,” she said. “It  has been both a humbling and exciting experience for me thus far.”

Her principal goal? “We are moving forward with a consolidated high school,” she said.

What has been decided so far is that a new Chambers County High will be built, it will be located in Valley and will be constructed at a cost not to exceed $90 million.

Weldon said that being before a federal judge was nothing like anything she had ever experienced before. She said it had been a comfort for her to have some local people there with her including the Rileys.

That first meeting was an opportunity for her to introduce herself to the judge and to communicate what the board’s intentions were with consolidation.

“He made it clear to us that there would be no going back, that a new high school was going to be built on the site selected in Valley,” Weldon said.

Joe Jolly and Company of Birmingham is one of the most respected brokerage firms in Alabama. Weldon is confident his company will be a great resource in seeing the building of a new school to a successful conclusion.

Weldon said that one thing she had learned from her dad, the late Billy Sides, was to always be prepared for the unexpected.

This is a factor in some cost-cutting moves that will have to take place from the original plan. The first step in this was to make a list of non-negotiable factors in what the new school must have. These include being a single building, having both a competition gym and an auxiliary one, and being able to accommodate at estimated 900 students.

The need for everything to be in a single building involves security. We are now in a post-Columbine, widespread AR 15 world. Mass casualty events happen in public schools. The more security the better, and it’s a good idea to have everyone in a campus in one secure place. It’s more difficult to do it on campuses with multiple buildings.

“We want all the students to know the school is theirs the first time they walk in,” Weldon said. “We want them to know it’s a place they want to be.”

Weldon would like for established school traditions to carry on in the new school. This won’t be easy to do.

She cited the example of homecoming at LaFayette High. It’s not just one Friday night football game and the crowning of a homecoming queen. It’s a week-long celebration that involves not just the high school but the entire community. On the Saturday after the Friday night game, LaFayette looks like a college town, with tailgating and a big dance.

“They want to maintain that tradition,” Weldon said, “and I want it to continue for them as well. I want to see the support for our schools to go on not just in Valley but also in LaFayette, Five Points and Milltown. We should all rally behind our school system and love it.”

One thing that will be carefully monitored in the school building process is the cost per square foot. It now runs from $400 to a staggering $1,200. It is a realistic goal to build a school for 900 students in the $85 million to $90 million range.”Joe Jolly has told me we won’t go over $90 million,” Weldon said.

Serious consideration is being given to relocate Inspire Academy to the new Chambers County High campus. This would cut down school bus traffic on Highway 50. There would also be savings in operating fewer buildings.

Weldon said that some amazing instruction is now being offered at Inspire Academy and she would like for that to expand. Dual enrollment is also becoming more popular. This allows high school students to earn college credits before they move on to the next level. In some states, high school students are earning enough college-level credits to be able to enter college as juniors. By doing this, they can conceivably have a four-year college degree when they are still a teenager,

Weldon said that new uses need to be found for the county’s growing list of school buildings that have been abandoned or are going to be. This includes elementary schools in Five Points and Langdale, and in the coming years the present middle schools in Valley and LaFayette. W.F. Burns is expected to relocate into the present Valley High building and J.P. Powell going to the STEAM Academy in the present LaFayette High building.