Belle Mayor David Fletcher speaks before the Kanawha County Board of Education during Tuesday's school closure hearing at Riverside High.Photo byKanawha County Schools

BELLE, W.Va. -- For the third time in two weeks, members of the Kanawha County Board of Education have decided to close another local school.

On Tuesday, Oct. 15, panelists voted 5-0 to shutter Belle Elementary School. The vote came after an hour long public hearing at Riverside High School, where speaker after speaker – 17 in all – voiced their opposition to the elementary school’s closure.

Even before the meeting began, community members were already speaking out against the proposal.

On Monday, Belle Mayor David Fletcher told a local radio station that he was “not in favor” of the school shuttering. Fletcher spoke to the board during Tuesday’s closure hearing, touting the community’s safety and a recent increase in student enrollment at the community's elementary as some of the reasons why the school should be kept open.

“We ask that you do not close Belle Elementary School,” Fletcher implored the panel.

Last week, the school board voted to close East Bank Middle School and McKinley Middle School. East Bank students will be consolidated with DuPont Middle School, and McKinley students will be sent to Hayes Middle School, beginning with the 2025-26 school year.

On Monday, Bruce Cox, an upper Kanawha Valley resident, began an online petition asking the board to reverse its 3-2 decision to close East Bank Middle School. By Tuesday evening, the petition had garnered more than 380 signatures.

It was unclear as to whether the petition would be considered by board members.

School officials cite a decline in the area’s population, and a subsequent reduction in enrollment, as the main reason for the school closures.

New consolidated elementary proposed

School officials presented this mockup as a possible design for the yet-to-be built school on Tuesday, but stressed that plans would change.Photo byKanahwa County Schools

Unlike East Bank Middle and McKinley Middle schools, Belle Elementary is not expected to close at the beginning of the 2025-26 academic year. Instead, Belle's closure would take effect in a few years, after a new proposed elementary school has been built. Students from Belle Elementary, Mary Ingles Elementary, Malden Elementary and Midland Trail Elementary would be consolidated into the new building, which would be erected on a site in DuPont City.

Kanawha County Schools submitted a request to the state School Building Authority (SBA) in September, asking for monies to construct the new building. The SBA is expected to make its decision by December.

The earliest the school could open would be by at the beginning of the 2028-29 school year, officials said Tuesday.

In the meantime, Kanawha Board of Education members will continue to hold school hearing closures for Mary Ingles, Malden and Midland Trail elementary schools in the coming days.

The next hearing, for Mary Ingles Elementary, will be held Thursday, Oct. 17 at 6 p.m. at Riverside High School in Belle. Board members are expected to vote on the school's potential closure immediately following the public hearing.

Michael Ramsburg is a Kanawha County communities reporter. He can be reached at ramsburgreports@gmail.com or by calling 304-370-3067.