After nearly 50 years, Abb’s Valley-Boissevain remains ‘Learning Heaven’

By LARRY HYPES

I remember that summer down on the Moore Farm in Abb’s Valley when the big new school was being built. At Abb’s Valley School, where Don Hoback was principal, we were excited. We would have a real library and not just room shelves. There would be a fancy cafeteria (also known as a “multi-purpose room”) where we could eat, practice music, do physical education activities and have PTA meetings.

For the first time, our bathrooms would be indoors. We were to have central heat and we would not have to cut kindling wood and carry coal to build our fires on cold mornings. The floors would not have to be oiled because they were made of fancy tile. We had heard there would be fluorescent lights, just like the high school in Pocahontas. Every room was going to have a clock and there was a radio system being installed that could be used for the whole school, if necessary.

There was going to be a huge playground out back with a place to play softball and football and there were concrete sidewalks in the front with a paved teacher parking lot.

We didn’t know that city kids had had most of those amenities for a long time. Neither could we realize about the extra special attention we had received. Our country school teachers had given the majority of us an educational foundation that many of those larger schools could not duplicate.

Now, two generations later, Abb’s Valley-Boissevain Elementary School has continued to spread its educational wings and is flying as high as any elementary school in Virginia. Principal Sharon Smith and her dedicated staff are working so effectively with the boys and girls over there that the school has again received notification that it is among the elite facilities in the entire state.

Tazewell County Public Schools Elementary Education Supervisor Bonnie Cash is thrilled at the news and very proud. Bonnie told me earlier this week that only 13 schools in Virginia have earned such honors. In the past year alone, Abb’s Valley-Boissevain Elementary School has earned the distinction of being named a Governor’s Award for Educational Excellence school, a Title I Distinguished School, been named a “No Child Left Behind — Blue Ribbon Schools Award” and has also been honored by a resolution from the Tazewell County School Board.

Bonnie adds that Tazewell Elementary School, another terrific school, earned a Blue Ribbon Award in 2007 and she is thrilled that Tazewell County has had two schools in three years earn such an honor. It is indeed a tribute to these two fine communities.

The Standards of Learning scores at Abb’s Valley are amazing across the board with nothing less than 95.7 percent in any area. Sharon has been principal since 2002 and along with her staff, the work at Abb’s Valley-Boissevain Elementary School has been nothing less than outstanding ever since. Mrs. Smith is justifiably proud of noting that the majority of classes have large numbers and only one teacher responsible for all instruction within that grade. There are 171 students total with nine full-time teachers and one part-time instructor.

An equally significant statistic is that 68 percent (two out of every three children) of the student body is on free or reduced price lunch, an indication of the struggles many boys and girls overcome in addition to getting the school work done. It is not nearly as easy to concentrate when resources at home are hard to come by.

Those children certainly love their school and their teachers. Kindergartner Presley says: “School is fun.” First grader Hannah notes: “The teachers at Abb’s Valley-Boissevain are nice.”

Second grader Kenzie observes: “Abb’s Valley is the best because of the education and it has forgiveness.”

Third grader Michael says: “Abb’s Valley is the best school in Virginia. We have smart kids and good teachers. My mom went to school here and I want my kids some day to go to school here. Maybe when I grow up, I’ll take over for Mrs. Smith and be the principal.”

And fifth grader Thomas says: “Our school is a fun learning environment where kids have a good time with friends.”

Abb’s Valley-Boissevain Elementary will be honored in Washington, D.C., on November 2-3 at the Blue Ribbon Schools Program. Arne Duncan, the U.S. Secretary of Education notes that only 314 schools in the entire nation qualified and Abb’s Valley-Boissevain Elementary School was in the select group.

It’s been 46 years since that Tuesday after Labor Day in 1963 we first walked into Abb’s Valley-Boissevain Elementary School but one thing has not changed.

As fourth grader Wesley says: “The food is nice, the classrooms are neat and this school is Learning Heaven!”

Larry Hypes is a teacher at Tazewell High School and a columnist for the Daily Telegraph.

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