Earlier this week, Ryan Dornon was thinking about what classes he was going to take in the fall.
Summer was right around the corner and there was a lot to consider.
Time was going to be taken up by practices for fall sports. Weightlifting for football had already started. Ryan and the other seniors-to-be were thinking about what to paint for their senior parking spots.
Ryan and the other Beallsville student athletes were actually being honored for their athletic achievements Wednesday, May 28 during an awards banquet at the school.
Then he received a notification on Facebook.
There was to be a special meeting at 2 p.m. the next day, Thursday, May 29 at Swiss Hills Career Center. Among the items on the agenda was “the consideration of suspension of grades 9-12 at Beallsville High School”.
There didn’t seem to be much for Ryan and his classmates to celebrate after the notification.
His classmate, Hailey Bable, said she’d been a mess since getting word of the potential closure of the high school.
“We (my classmates and I) hoped we would wake up and it would all have been a dream,” she said.
But it wasn’t a dream.
Instead of being the first class to go from kindergarten through their senior year at the new Beallsville Campus, Hailey and Ryan were faced with the possibility of not getting to graduate as Blue Devils.
In a way, the notification is something Hailey, Ryan and their fellow Blue Devils have lived with for years.
They were just starting grade school in 2015 when the Switzerland of Ohio Local School District (SOLSD) Board of Education approved a resolution to close Beallsville High School.
That closure never came to be, but now, they get to be the first class to go through two closures, as they watched the SOLSD School Board unanimously approve a motion to shut down Beallsville High School.
The agenda passed out to visitors said there would be “discussion,” but there wasn’t much to speak of.
District Superintendent Phil Ackerman provided the board information on what would happen to current Beallsville students and staff.
Teachers would keep their jobs, same with other staff members, such as cooks and janitors, though some might be at different buildings.
For students, a line of sorts would divide the Beallsville area, sending students who lived on the east to River and students who lived on the west to Monroe Central. Townships would also be considered, with students living in Switzerland, Washington, Salem and the east part of Adams Township going to River and students in Malaga, Wayne, Sunsbury and the west part of Adams Township going to Monroe Central. Letters will be sent to families next week, providing the information. At the same time, students will be given the option to choose where they want to go in the fall.
Ryan said he didn’t know where he would go.
He remembered going to different schools during his freshman year after his English teacher left. While no one was blatantly unwelcoming to him, he didn’t feel “accepted”.
Only a few years later, Ryan, Hailey and the rest of the senior class at Beallsville High School will have to deal with the same feeling.
“We’re outcasts,” Ryan said.
Ryan couldn’t help but feel bitter about what is happening.
He and so many others sat through meetings held to discuss the future of the school.
While there were never outright promises to keep the school open indefinitely, there weren’t clear signs that a closure was imminent. As far as Ryan could tell, there was no reason to think he wouldn’t be spending his senior year at Beallsville.
Results from test scores were good. Participation in athletics was there.
But that wasn’t enough.
Ackerman said the Board felt that because of the low enrollment, only 47 students attended Beallsville High School last year, it was becoming too difficult to “support and sustain programs.”
Closing the school now will ultimately provide more opportunity for students academically as well as in art and athletic programs.
Ackerman recognized that there would be never be a good time to make the decision to close the school, but hoped that doing so now would provide sufficient time for students and their families to settle on what school would be best for them.
Ryan and Hailey weren’t sure where that would be.
Hailey’s younger brother, Jameson, a multi-sport athlete for the Blue Devils this past year as a freshman, wasn’t sure either. He’s seen other athletes leave Beallsville and have success elsewhere. With his size, standing well over 6-foot, he’s been told he should follow suit, but he always ignored it.
Now Jameson can’t ignore it anymore.
He’ll have to make a decision.
As will his sister, Hailey, Ryan, Megan Robinson, Carlee Winkler, Karly Showalter, Kyler Kinzy, Jayson Ramsey and the dozens of other Beallsville students.
That decision wasn’t going to be made in the immediate aftermath of learning that their school would be closing, that they’d no longer be Blue Devils. Instead they milled around the lobby at Swiss Hills Career Center, crying, hugging, sharing the sadness.
They gathered in a circle and sang the Beallsville Alma Mater, as TV crews and news reporters circled around, waiting for the right moment to swoop in for a good quote – as if there could be a right moment.
Beallsville Principal April Parden looked on, with teary eyes, feeling the same hurt, the same disappointment as her students.
What could she say to them?
She recognized that Beallsville would open in the fall, as the school would continue for preschool through eighth grade, but it would be different.
“It will be hard not seeing the kids I’ve gotten used to seeing the last five years,” Parden said.
She told her students they could reach out to her if they needed to and she’d do anything she could for them.
She hoped that students like Ryan, Hailey, Jameson, Megan, Carlee, Karly, Kyler and Jayson can see that they will be able to thrive wherever they choose to go next fall – even if they aren’t where they hoped they would be.
“They all have the traits and what they need to be able to succeed anywhere,” Parden said. “But they don’t want to succeed anywhere else.”
