Huntington's Highlawn neighborhood does not want to lose its middle school. However, Enslow Middle School needs improvements, especially if it is to offer the same quality of education as the newer middle schools under construction in the county.

Upgrading Enslow would require that it is made to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. But Enslow cannot be upgraded to comply with ADA requirements, Cabell County school officials say.

Enslow is one of several school buildings in Cabell County that are not ADA-compliant. Interestingly, one of the others is Beverly Hills Middle School.

Cabell County school officials plan to submit a plan to the state School Building Authority next year to consolidate the two middle schools and build a new one. Enslow is too small to receive SBA money for renovations. Last year, it had 246 students in grades 6 through 8. In the 1977-78 school year, it had 530.

Huntington Middle School, housed in the building formerly known as West Middle School, has access issues similar to Enslow's. That should be no surprise. Both were built in the early 1900s, long before the needs of students with disabilities were considered important in designing a school building.

Huntington Middle School has one room that is accessible to people in wheelchairs. That one room is the gym. As reported by The Herald-Dispatch staff writer Bill Rosenberger on Monday, a teacher on the substitute list cannot be called to work at Huntington Middle because he or she would have no suitable room in which to lead a class.

School officials say they can accommodate disabled parents. Parent-teacher conferences could be held in another building, or in a room in the student's building, even if that room is the gym. Disabled teachers are able to teach only at ADA-compliant schools.

Given the number of schools that have been built in Cabell County in the past 20 years, the school system is in good shape overall on ADA compliance. Based on 2006-07 enrollment numbers (numbers for this year will not be available for a few more days), about 82 percent of the county's students will be in ADA-compliant buildings at the start of the 2009 school year.

More than anything else, the futures of Enslow and Beverly Hills middle schools must be driven by educational opportunities for the children who go there. That includes children with disabilities. And it should include access for employees and parents, too.

It would be unwise for the county to invest significant amounts of money to retrofit a school as small as Enslow for ADA compliance, assuming it could be done.

In all probability, Enslow's days are numbered. If the county receives SBA money to consolidate it with Beverly Hills in a new building at the Cabell County Career Technology Center, the neighborhood's disabled children will be served at their home school.

That is the intent of the ADA, and it must be adhered to.

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Lori Wolfe/The Herald-Dispatch

Principal Georgia Porter makes her way up the stairs of the main entrance of Enslow Middle School on Friday, Oct. 5, in Huntington. According to Cabell County Superintendent William Smith, Enslow cannot be made ADA compliant because of the way the school was built.

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