JULY 29, 2010 ISSUE
The Big Dream Becomes A Reality
Many People Over Many Years Stay The Course For the New School
Watauga High School Principal Michael Wyant and Watauga County Schools Supt. Marty Hemric stand at the front of the new high school. Both have played essential roles in bringing the new school to fruition.
A groundbreaking ceremony September 19, 2007 brought years of debate and discussions to a close on the official site of the new school. County Commissioners, Board of Education members, then-principal Angela Quick, then-Supt. Dick Jones, Mayor Loretta Clawson, teachers and students broke the ground with shovels painted Watauga blue.Although discussions about a new Watauga High School (WHS) spanned over many years, the debate really began in April 2003 when then-Supt. Dick Jones gave a “State of the Schools” presentation at an educational summit hosted by the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce.
Jones discussed various problems with the WHS facility and offered several possible solutions. Among these solutions were renovating the current school, building two new high schools and building one new high school.
“The idea of building two high schools was appealing in a lot of ways,” Jones said. “It would have cut down on travel, but financially it didn’t seem very probable or practical.”
Another alternative to building an entirely new facility was to remodel or renovate the present facility. “We looked at that before I left office,” Jones said. “There was some value, some positives, but the negatives really offset it…We’d be putting new wine in a very, very old bottle.”
“During my time, it was not a big controversy,” Jones said. “The new high school was still in the dreaming stages. We were just beginning to look for land…it was still on the drawing board.”
Jones left office in 2003 and Bobbie Short was hired as the new superintendent. Short continued the movement toward finding a solution to the old rundown high school.
Community meetings were held in each school district to gain an understanding of the desires of the citizens of Watauga County. Meetings with WHS officials, the Board of Education, county commissioners and architects continued over the next few years until 2006, when community members began to take action.
In 2006, Republicans, Independents and Democrats (RID)-Citizens for Restoration of Watauga High School emerged as a registered political action committee to protest the building of a new school and voice community support of renovation of the old facility.
Also in 2006, another registered political action committee, Citizens for Children, emerged with a contrasting agenda. Citizens for Children sported bumper stickers reading “New School. Now.” and “I’m 4 kids.” and pushed for an entirely new facility because of the vast benefits they believed it would have for the youth of the county.
Short published an address in February 2006 discussing community questions and concerns about the proposed new high school. In 2007, after multiple meetings, debates over location and a lengthy land purchase, the Watauga County Board of Commissioners and the Board of Education met and approved a preliminary site plan for the new high school property.
“While the Board of [Education] was responsible for basically carrying out the policies of the school system, the county commissioners were the funding source,” Jones said. “Both boards are to be commended for the way they did it…the way they pulled it together.”
More than three years have passed since the decision was made, and the high school has finally been completed.
“[The new facility] is a dream come true,” said Hemric. “It may be even better than we had dreamed because of advancements in technologies in the last couple years.”
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