[HollerRat]

Hearing rumblings this may be true.   Unexpected roadblocks with the deadline and costs to open back up are causing this to be a possibility. Hope for the kids from over that way it’s not true but word from around the central office is there will be a special called meeting to discuss

[DukeBoy]

Im all for consolidation. But I don’t see it happening.

[Radial_Armsaw]

I would imagine this would make it very hard for some kids to get to school. And although it may be better in a lot of ways I hate seeing the old small mountain schools disappearing. I miss the days of Dilce Combs, Whitesburg, Fleming Neon, etc.

Not many schools like that left. Buckhorn, Jackson City, redbird, and a couple of the small pike county schools are the only ones that come to mind.

[HCS]

I thought it was odd to spend that much on a school with something like 120 students. Leatherwood closed in the 70s, and that's about 28 miles from Hazard. That's a mile farther than Buckhorn.

[Spud6]

How close in buckhorn and Perry’s schools?

[Bulldogs4Ever]

I’d like for my taxes to be utilized better. Building that place back makes no sense at all. It’s about 20 miles Spuds to Perry for most those kids. It’s a pretty area and all over there but it’s Deadsville. Shouldn’t be kept open just because of sports I don’t think.

[LOOKAYANNER]

I think if this happens that a few adjacent area schools will pick up quite a few of Buckhorn’s students.
Here are the distances:
Perry Central and Hazard schools 28 miles/41 minute drive
To Owsley County schools 18 miles/25 minutes
To Breathitt County 26 miles/38 minutes
To Oneida Baptist 16 miles/41 minutes
To Leslie County is almost an hour drive and would be the least option I would think.
In driving distance Owsley is the best choice, particularly for the students who live north of Buckhorn on Route 28.

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The above listed distances are even more eye opening when one adds in the totals for a round trip to school and back home. Owsley would be 36 miles round trip. Hazard is a 56 mile round trip, and over a beautiful route 28 but very mountainous and curvy.

[Bulldogs4Ever]

Could be worse I guess but that is pretty bad.

[HCS]

I think if this happens that a few adjacent area schools will pick up quite a few of Buckhorn’s students.
Here are the distances:
Perry Central and Hazard schools 28 miles/41 minute drive
To Owsley County schools 18 miles/25 minutes
To Breathitt County 26 miles/38 minutes
To Oneida Baptist 16 miles/41 minutes
To Leslie County is almost an hour drive and would be the least option I would think.
In driving distance Owsley is the best choice, particularly for the students who live north of Buckhorn on Route 28.

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The above listed distances are even more eye opening when one adds in the totals for a round trip to school and back home. Owsley would be 36 miles round trip. Hazard is a 56 mile round trip, and over a beautiful route 28 but very mountainous and curvy.

Great breakdown
As I pointed out though, kids on the other end of Perry County have traveled 29 miles to Perry Central for years.
Owsley, Breathitt and OBI would probably all pick up some students from looking at your list, leaving only 50-60 to be bused to Perry Central.

[Cat Daddy]

To be honest, I am surprised this hasn't happened before now. Perry County like other surrounding counties in eastern Kentucky is losing population and it just makes sense from an economic standpoint for a consolidation to happen. I agree with some of the other posters about kids going to other county schools. There have always been kids from Breathitt who live close to Perry Line on Hwy 28, who have attended Buckhorn. Actually, some of the best athletes to ever play at Buckhorn lived in Breathitt County, but went to school and played athletics at Buckhorn. Sadly, this is becoming common theme in eastern Kentucky due to the declining population.

[Granny Bear]

I can definitely understand the argument for consolidation, but it sure does negatively impact the neighborhoods of the smaller schools. You can see that all over Harlan County. But sometimes, it's just the better option.

[HCS]

I can definitely understand the argument for consolidation, but it sure does negatively impact the neighborhoods of the smaller schools. You can see that all over Harlan County. But sometimes, it's just the better option.

I've heard that old wives' tale for years. Schools go out after the communities start to struggle not the other way around.
Buckhorn has nothing around it and will still have nothing with or without a school.
Evarts and Cumberland struggled for years before the high schools closed. Population and school enrollment went down together. I doubt there is much of a difference now compared to 16 years ago other than the steady loss of people going back decades.
Browning Acres is doing fine without Cawood High School, but Rosspoint and the area around HCHS hasn't changed very much even with a new high school. The campus is nice, but the neighborhood is the same.

[Granny Bear]

I respectfully disagree. Loyall, Wallins, Cumberland, etc are only shells of what the communities used to be. Part of that is the declining population, but a part of it was the removal of the community schools. i wouldn't expect a decline in Rosspoint because of the consolidation of Loyall and Green Hills and Totz into that school. So I'm not saying that the removal of those schools is the only reason for the community decline, but it definitely impacts it.

[HCS]

This is from Google:

Buckhorn is a home rule-class city in Perry County, Kentucky, in the United States. The population was 162 at the 2010 census. It is centered on the Buckhorn Presbyterian Church, a log structure listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Wikipedia
Population: 80 (2022)

They've had a high school there and still lost half its population since 2010.

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I respectfully disagree. Loyall, Wallins, Cumberland, etc are only shells of what the communities used to be. Part of that is the declining population, but a part of it was the removal of the community schools. i wouldn't expect a decline in Rosspoint because of the consolidation of Loyall and Green Hills and Totz into that school. So I'm not saying that the removal of those schools is the only reason for the community decline, but it definitely impacts it.

Downtown Harlan is a shell of what it was when I growing up in the 70s. It still has a high school that's doing well.
Cumberland went from 600-plus students in the 1980s to around 300 before closing. Jobs and people leaving had everything to do with turning into a shell of what it was when there were coal mines running full steam.
My point on Rosspoint is that a countywide high school opened next door in 2008 and it has done nothing to change the community of Rosspoint as far as population or businesses.
James A. Cawood closed as a high school in 2008. I grew up across the road. Homes are going for 200,000-plus there. The community isn't suffering in the least, especially when compared to the rest of the county.
Wallins was a boom town in the 30s, 40s and 50s due to coal. The school was there because of the population. When the population left, so did the school. That's how it works everywhere pretty much.

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Granny Bear and I are on the same side on 99 percent of issues, and I don't mean to come across like I'm angry. I've just had this consolidation debate for 20-plus years and just don't handle the sentimental angle very well.

[Granny Bear]

I was all for the consolidation for our county; however, IMO it wasn't good for the smaller communities. And this isn't a sentimental issue with me. I don't think that the closing of community schools CAUSED the population decline. I believe that it negatively impacted the surrounding community.

And I'm not angry and I didn't think you were angry. I enjoy hearing different angles on issues, and I highly regard your opinions.

[BlackHawk]

Buckhorn High lost all of its feeder schools. Lost Creek closed in 2009, and then when Willard and Chavies closed and consolidated in 2017.

The past 7 years, Buckhorn has won a total of 86 games. The previous 7 years to that, they won a total of 134 games. From 2010 to 2017, there was a player on Buckhorn’s roster who was vital to the team from one of the feeder schools that is now closed.

Buckhorn did take a step in the right direction last year hiring Shannon Blank. The dude works hard and has a passion for the sport. However, I can’t see Buckhorn ever being competitive to Hazard or PCC again. To be honest, I don’t know if they will ever make it out of district tournament. Just my opinion.

[Medusa]

We need more small schools. Consolidating is a mistake. Knocks a lot of children out of getting opportunities academically and athletically.

[HCS]

Opportunities?
What classes are offered at Buckhorn not offered at Perry?
How many sports are offered at Buckhorn, or any school with less than 200 students that isn't private with LOTS of money?

[dodger]

This is the type of situation where it would be nice if district lines weren't tied so much to county boundaries. Send the western 2/3 of those kids to Owsley and the eastern part of Buckhorn district to PCC.

[zaga_fan]

Opportunities?
What classes are offered at Buckhorn not offered at Perry?
How many sports are offered at Buckhorn, or any school with less than 200 students that isn't private with LOTS of money?

There are a few things offered different academically between the schools, but not much.
Buckhorn had a dual credit program for audio production and an in-house recording studio before the flood. 
Not sure if that is getting replaced or what.
Buckhorn was one of the schools to pilot a boys volleyball program so that's an option Perry doesn't have. They also started up esports last year (it was an option at Perry before but the coach left, don't know the status).

In general, I think when people say kids are missing out on opportunities they are talking about playing time, scholarships, etc.
There are some kids who wouldn't get playing time at Perry but contribute at Buckhorn. There are some scholarships that will go to directly to Buckhorn students when getting split within the district and some organizations will give one to a student at each school in the service area.

There are opportunities that come to the students at Buckhorn that wouldn't happen otherwise, but it probably amounts to a small handful of things when all is said and done.
I don't see Buckhorn consolidating into Perry. It seems like they are close to finishing the repairs and I don't see why they would abandon it at this stage in the game.

They're in the process of consolidating all the elementary and middle schools on the south end of the county. The school system could have probably saved a lot of money by consolidating Robinson Elementary into East Perry and Buckhorn into West Perry/Perry Central when they were damaged/destroyed in the flood, but I don't think it was ever touted as a legitimate option.

[HCS]

Not sure why it wouldn't be an option. How many county districts keep a high school open with 130 students when it's not the only high school in the county. The Knott/Cordia thing doesn't really count since a judge made that happen.
The travel argument doesn't even hold up a year after kids in K-8 from Leatherwood were sent 25 miles to R.W. Combs. You could keep Buckhorn open K-8 and move the high school kids and that would match up with what other counties across the state have done for years.

[zaga_fan]

Not sure why it wouldn't be an option. How many county districts keep a high school open with 130 students when it's not the only high school in the county. The Knott/Cordia thing doesn't really count since a judge made that happen.
The travel argument doesn't even hold up a year after kids in K-8 from Leatherwood were sent 25 miles to R.W. Combs. You could keep Buckhorn open K-8 and move the high school kids and that would match up with what other counties across the state have done for years.

I'm just saying consolidating Buckhorn into Perry Central has not been a serious conversation, but Just like Robinson's consolidation hasn't been a serious conversation. I can't speak to the particulars but if it was just a logistics issue it would have happened a long time ago. Perry has consolidated Dennis Wooton, AB Combs, Big Creek, Lost Creek and Chavies into East and West Perry so they aren't immune to consolidation. They're set to consolidate Viper and RW into South Perry. At that point you'll have East Perry, West Perry, South Perry, Perry Central and then Buckhorn and Robinson.

Not that it matters, but the Leatherwood kids were sent to Viper and that's more like 12 miles. They'll all head out to Highway 15 once South Perry is finished anyway.

[LOOKAYANNER]

Invite Owsley County to annex the panhandle section of Perry County where Buckhorn is located and solve all your logistical problems in one sweep of a pen. Lol. Booneville is 10 miles closer to Buckhorn than Hazard…….20 miles saved in bus travel per day.
The organizers could win the Medal of Resourceful Solution Solving, a prestigious state award that will be in its inaugural year of presenting.

[HCS]

Not sure why it wouldn't be an option. How many county districts keep a high school open with 130 students when it's not the only high school in the county. The Knott/Cordia thing doesn't really count since a judge made that happen.
The travel argument doesn't even hold up a year after kids in K-8 from Leatherwood were sent 25 miles to R.W. Combs. You could keep Buckhorn open K-8 and move the high school kids and that would match up with what other counties across the state have done for years.

I'm just saying consolidating Buckhorn into Perry Central has not been a serious conversation, but Just like Robinson's consolidation hasn't been a serious conversation. I can't speak to the particulars but if it was just a logistics issue it would have happened a long time ago. Perry has consolidated Dennis Wooton, AB Combs, Big Creek, Lost Creek and Chavies into East and West Perry so they aren't immune to consolidation. They're set to consolidate Viper and RW into South Perry. At that point you'll have East Perry, West Perry, South Perry, Perry Central and then Buckhorn and Robinson.

Not that it matters, but the Leatherwood kids were sent to Viper and that's more like 12 miles. They'll all head out to Highway 15 once South Perry is finished anyway.

Says 21.2 miles here, and some live beyond the school at Leatherwood going to Leslie and Letcher counties.


https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Leatherw...?entry=ttu