PIKEVILLE, Ky. – Despite rumors to the contrary, Pike County Schools Superintendent Roger Wagner says there are no definite plans to close Bevins Grade School.

Wagner sat down with the Daily News to address the concerns of parents who have picketed at Bevins School as well as the BOE offices in Pikeville. He said that although no decisions have been made, the county does need to cut costs, and that consolidating Runyon and Bevins is one of the possibilities.

“There are issues and budget concerns,” Wagner said. “The state of the national, state and local economy has had an impact on funding. It is expensive to maintain schools, the state says we have too many schools, and we have had some initial considerations with the state about the number of schools in Pike County.”

Wagner explained that some of the issues include the cost to maintain a school’s infrastructure.

“When you are looking at ways to cut costs, the condition of the building to be considered,” Wagner said. “The systems, heating and cooling and water, the kitchen, things like that. Runyon only has 157 students, Runyon has 212, and it is expensive to have a staff and maintain a building with that low enrollment.”

Wagner says the main goal of the board to do what is best for the students.

“We have to look at how we can improve instruction,” he said. “With the money it costs to maintain an older building like Bevins, we could add enrichment courses, hire teachers for music, art and physical education.”

Wagner said he understands the apprehension of the parents as well of others in Sidney, the community where Bevins is located.

“There are two issues I am concerned with,” Wagner said. “First, I realize how much it means to take a school out of a community. Also, the travel to Runyon is another area of concern.”

Wagner went on to say that some of the methods that may be considered to cut costs also include split classes, which is used when there are not enough students to have an entire class made up of children in the same grade level, and so students in two grades are put into one class.

“There are financial concerns for the county,” the superintendent said. “We would like to have a new school in the Belfry area, we need schools in Phelps and Virgie. We would like to combine the two Millard schools. All those things are dependent on funding.”

Although a meeting has been scheduled to discuss Bevins Grade School, many parents said they felt the meeting was purposefully set after the end of the term. Superintendent Wagner says that is simply not the case, that the board has been busy, and June 11 was the first date that was possible for that meeting.

“We want parents to know the Pike BOE wants their involvement in the decision making process,” he said. “We have had to deal with the flood, and now we are in graduation season, but we definately want input from the community.”

Wagner said rumors about the schools got out of hand before he could deal with the situation.

“Some of these rumors are completely out of line,” he said. “We have not had any meetings with [a local coal company] about buying Bevins School, we will not bus kids to John’s Creek. We have not laid off the staff at Bevins. They have received their letters of re-hire for the 2009-10 school term.”