Powhatan Board of Supervisors, School Board clash over demolition of Pocahontas Middle

POWHATAN COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- Some Powhatan County residents are wanting to put a stop to parts of the former Pocahontas Middle School set to be demolished in the second week of July.

The school is a symbol of desegregating Powhatan County Public Schools in 1969.   

This comes after a Powhatan County School Board vote on June 24. The board voted 4-1 for the partial demolition contract, but 8News is told the Powhatan County Board of Supervisors were hoping to take over the property to avoid this.  

"The Chair of both boards were on a meeting a few months ago with engineers and it was determined that two of the three wings are still good enough to save and remodel, however one of the wings has too much water and mold damage to repair and must be torn down," said Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Donati. "Once the board of supervisors heard that two of those wings could be remodeled, we developed a vison and began to cast that vision. We wanted to take ownership of the building from the schools since no children were being educated in that building. The BOS would take over ownership and handle all maintenance and give the schools whatever additional administrative space they needed."

The county opened a new middle school in 2019, closing Pocahontas Middle and making it the Pocahontas Landmark Center, used as county administrators’ offices and the county’s first African American Cultural Arts Museum.  

Since the school closure in 2019, the school board has discussed what to do with the building, given why the vote on the demolition contractor was denied to be delayed. 

The school has a rich history.   

The county opened the Powhatan Training School in 1931, offering upper-level courses to Black students. The county then opened what became a segregated high school in 1937. It was initially called the Powhatan Colored School but was changed to Pocahontas High School in 1941. An elementary wing was added in 1950.

Powhatan County ended segregation in public schools in 1969, and that same year, the school became the integrated Pocahontas Middle School, and the high school was permanently closed.

The entire campus will not be demolished, but this photo shows the parts in gray that will be.  

Because the building no longer operates as a school, the school board is not authorized to spend money on maintaining the building. This is why Donati said the Board of Supervisors were hoping to take over.   

"The school board refused to give us ownership of the building," Donati said. "We saw a possibility with that space to model it to fit the needs for the community to build a community center to fit the needs of our senior community, young adults, youth and civic groups. A community center was in a 10-year plan, and this would have been a perfect way to save millions of dollars for our hard-working citizens.”  

“In my opinion, they have acted with reckless disregard for the historic resources of this county and the expenditure of taxpayer dollars," said former Pocahontas student Hank Cosby.

Cosby was born and raised in Powhatan and attended fourth through seventh grade at Pocahontas in the 80s.

“We need to allow the Powhatan County Board of Supervisors to oversee this complex so that it can be used for future community use or even school use," Cosby said. “So much effort and so much history is here on these grounds."

During the school board meeting, board members Michele Ward and Vicki Hurt tried to move the vote to a later date to possibly discuss different avenues with the Board of Supervisors. That request was denied, and only Ward voted against the demolition contract.

"The families and taxpayers of this community deserve to have a voice to be heard with representation from their SB and BOS officers," Ward told 8News. "I requested a 30-45 day delay so that more clarification of cost and projected over-budgeting could be reviewed... this community has suffered too much already by the poor decisions of several past and current SB and BOS officers. They forget they/I are elected to serve the majority of taxpaying citizens in this county. It's time to put your own pride and self-serving decisions aside."

“The decision was rash and the decision was irresponsible," Cosby said. “I trust that this can be prevented because it is on the wrong side of history. We’ve seen too much of that in the past and I simply cannot stand by idly and watch that happen.”   

The demolition is estimated to cost over a million taxpayer dollars.  

School board member Dr. James Taylor told 8News he had no further comment on the matter.

8News reached out to the two other school board members who voted for the demolition, Chairwoman Susan Smith and Vice Chairwoman Jeanne Wade. We have not heard back.  

Vicki Hurt referred us to a social media post she made saying, "After three board members were adamant at demolition and would not revisit their decision we had to vote for a contractor. I chose to vote for the lowest bidder as to save as much taxpayer money I could... I feel it is a huge loss for the citizens of Powhatan."

Demolition is scheduled to start July 7.