Inside the classroom, test scores, teacher pay, and the pipeline

How many kids, and the shape of the pipeline

In the first month of this school year the division reported 2,047 students in kindergarten through 12th grade and 103 more in pre-K. Southern Gap High had 798 students in grades 8 through 12, Riverview Elementary/Middle 642, Hurley 231, Twin Valley 222, and Council 154 [243]. A later monthly update put enrollment at 2,029, down 18, mostly from withdrawals, out-of-county moves and homeschooling, and staff reminded the board that those losses cut attendance-based state funding [253]. For scale, the state counted about 2,359 students in average daily membership in 2023-24 [249], so the system has lost roughly 300 students in two years, before counting this fall's slide.

The grade-by-grade counts tell a subtler story. The four elementary schools together enrolled about 180 kindergartners this year (88, 35, 38 and 19), almost exactly the 182 eighth graders at Southern Gap, while the senior class is 154 and the ninth grade 144 [243]. So the incoming classes aren't collapsing; they're steady at around 150 to 180 a grade. The losses show up mostly as families leaving mid-stream, which fits the first edition's finding that deaths and out-migration, not just fewer births, are shrinking the county. At Council the classes are tiny: 13 first graders, 12 second graders and 10 fourth graders [243], which is the kind of math that drove the high school merger and will keep pressure on the elementary schools.

Test scores: middle of the pack in reading, a hole in science and high school math

A tracker built on state test data shows the elementary/middle schools within about 5 points of the state in math for 2025-26: Council 64%, Hurley 65%, Riverview 64% and Twin Valley 70%, the only one above the state. Reading ranged from Council's 63% to Twin Valley's 79%, which was 7 points above the state. Science was the outlier. Hurley passed 46% and Twin Valley 50%, about 19 to 23 points under the state, while Council (75%) and Riverview (71%) beat it [247].

The bigger concern was the old high schools in their last year, 2024-25. Grundy High passed 68% in math and 82% in reading. Twin Valley High passed just 9% in math, 54 points below the state, and 36% in science [247]. Riverview's three-subject average rose about 11 points from 2022-23 to 2025-26, while Twin Valley Elementary/Middle's fell about 8 [247]. Between half and about two-thirds of students at each school come from families getting SNAP or similar aid, and roughly a fifth to more than a quarter have a special-education plan [247].

On the state's School Quality Profile, Council Elementary/Middle, Twin Valley Elementary/Middle, Council High and Hurley High were listed as Accredited, and Hurley and Riverview elementary/middle schools, Grundy High and Twin Valley High as Accredited with Conditions [248]. Virginia is moving to a new School Performance and Support Framework that sorts schools into Distinguished, On Track, Off Track and Needs Intensive Support using test mastery, growth, readiness (including chronic absenteeism) and graduation, and the state says it does not label any school as failing [254]. Southern Gap's first ratings under that system will be the first fair test of whether the merger lifted the students who were at Twin Valley High.

Showing up: chronic absence

The state counts a student as chronically absent after missing 10% or more of the year. In Buchanan that was 28.2% of students (654) in 2022-23, 19.7% (441) in 2023-24 and 21.4% (470) in 2024-25 [249]. That's a real recovery from the post-pandemic peak, but about one in five students is still missing a month or more of school a year. This August, every school reported average attendance above 94%, with Southern Gap at 97.3% [243], though seven days in August says little about February on a snowy hollow road. With one consolidated high school, many teenagers now ride farther every day, so roads and bus routes are part of the attendance story.

Money: the teacher-pay fight at budget time

At the county's May 11 budget hearing, school board member Dr. Brian Looney asked supervisors to raise the county's contribution from $8.1 million to about $9.3 million so the division could give faculty a 10% raise. He said the county's school employees are the lowest-paid teachers in Virginia, about 10% behind Russell, Tazewell and Dickenson, with first-year teachers making $41,000 against $45,000 in Russell and Tazewell. He said the division was losing five faculty members, had 80 employees over 65 and 20 over 70, and was trying to hire eight special-education teachers for the fall [244].

Supervisors pushed back. County Administrator Robert C. Horn said the county is required to provide only about $7 million in level funding and was already giving about $1.1 million above that, and Knox supervisor Trey Adkins said a raise for teachers would bring the same request from Social Services, the PSA and county staff. Garden supervisor Jeff Cooper argued the raises would come in three to four years from consolidation savings, and Looney estimated the merger would save at least $1.3 million a year in utilities alone [244]. A motion by Rocklick supervisor Craig Stiltner to provide $9.2 million failed [244]. On June 8 the board unanimously approved $8.1 million, paid to the schools in 12 monthly installments of $675,000 [245].

For context, the county's $8.1 million is one line in a $61.12 million general fund and a $197.7 million all-funds budget, which also carries $41.77 million in the School Fund and $50 million for school construction [246]. Most of the school operating money comes from the state under its funding formula, which is why every lost student matters.

Where the tech and trade training is

Southern Gap High has built-in space for the county's career and technical programs, including nursing, dental assisting, welding, auto body and cosmetology [250]. Next door, Southwest Virginia Community College's Southern Gap center, built with the county IDA and the coalfield economic development authority, runs CDL and diesel repair training, Snap-on certifications, nursing courses, CNA and phlebotomy, a 24-hour drone (unmanned aerial systems) course, and short solar installation, flagger and ServSafe credentials [251][255]. High school juniors and seniors can take SWCC dual-enrollment classes at a tuition discount, and rising sophomores can with principal approval in their career pathway [252].