The Fight for Hover’s High School
Citizens rally to reject a county plan to strip their small community of its local high school.
The story, cleaned up
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County Superintendent of Schools Jones visited Hover to explain a new state law classifying school districts, proposing that Hover and Finley students be sent to Kennewick High School instead. While the Hover district had narrowly missed accreditation attendance targets, the law provided a two-year grace period to improve. H.W. Powell, chairman of the school board, convened a meeting at the schoolhouse where citizens, including Mrs. B. B. Stewart, H. S. Hughes, C. J. Dahlin, E. E. Toothaker, and E. T. Cushman, spoke in favor of keeping the school. The town voted unanimously to accept the two-year trial to make the high school succeed, with residents emphasizing that a local high school acts as a critical 'drawing card' for the town’s future.
“This is something which all citizens should be interested in whether they have high school pupils in the home or not as a high school is a drawing card for any town.”
Consolidation of rural schools remains a point of tension in Washington, echoing today's debates about the viability of small-town institutions versus the efficiency of larger district hubs.
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