Cullowhee Valley School

This school, despite having some great teachers and programs, is probably the dirtiest in the county. I went there from Kindergarten through 8th Grade. It is a fairly modern facility having been built in 1994, but due to poor quality of materials and several cost-saving measures during construction, the school has rapidly deteriorated and that has saddened me quite a bit. The test scores have gotten worse since my class left in 2009, though, as we were a strong class and we led the rest and once we were gone they didn't know how to lead, unfortunately. It does have its upsides, though. It had great teachers and while I was there, great students. We did the best we could for the facilities we had and the school has increased to have over 90 more students than it was designed to have, which means classes got moved into less-than-ideal classrooms, but we made due with what we had. The school will need to be replaced in about 10 years because of its present condition, which is worsening at an accelerating rate. The enrollment in the past few years has dropped because of a big falling-out between the principal and parents over some of the conditions at the school, which included leaky roofs, mold infestations, excessive dust clogging the air conditioners, and dehumidifiers that have to be emptied every 12 hours in every classroom. Recently, the school has gotten a new principal, who enacted several controversial measures in an effort to improve test scores, which include getting rid of school traditions, like the 3rd Grade Wizard of Oz play, which had been performed every year by Kindergarteners since the school was known as Cordelia Camp Laboratory School in the 1980s, field trips, the International Day assembly, and other school activities. The band room was moved in 2010 to a locker room, which is a very unsuitable location, due to the fact that no other place was available for them to practice. You can ask anyone who went to the school for at least a year out of the past five years and they will tell you the same story. This once-great school has been going downhill for years and I believe it should be replaced with a new school (or two new schools, as it serves the largest K-8 School district in the county, some bus rides are several hours long), and the present building should in all honesty be torn down and the campus used as an annex for the next-door Jackson County Recreation Center. I believe the cause of the dropping test scores is due to the air inside the building, which isn't suitable for school environments.