Megargel makes the front page

I was shocked when I pulled up the Dallas Morning News Web site tonight to check out the local news and saw this front page story about the little town of Megargel, the closest town to my family’s house and the school district where I spent my second grade year after my family moved to the farm from Amarillo.

That year, we had a class of about 10 second and third graders combined into one classroom under the capable instruction of Mrs. Arminta Miller. The district has shrunk considerably since then and has consolidated all 12 grades into the old high school building, the same building where my dad went to high school.

Just as I moved on to the Olney school district, 15 miles to the east, from third grade on, it sounds like the rest of the Megargel district will be consolidated with Olney soon. And thus, the end of the era of the Megargel Mustangs.

Here’s the story from the Morning News.

School, town facing demise
By COLLEEN McCAIN NELSON / The Dallas Morning News

MEGARGEL, Texas – The streets are nearly empty in this dying town.

The 250 people who call Megargel home don’t create much traffic. Along the main road, most of the businesses are boarded up. And the convenience store/deli only sometimes sells gas.

Megargel’s school is one of the few signs of life. Rumors of its demise have been kicked around for decades, but the town has sustained the school through force of will and a willingness to deplete savings.

When the six-man football team couldn’t find a sixth man, a cheerleader took the field. And when only one seventh-grader enrolled this year, the school offered one-on-one instruction.

Now, with just 63 students and a nearly empty bank account, the Megargel Independent School District is running out of money and options.

“You could see it coming, but you’re just hoping that something’s going to change,” said principal John Robertson, who has spent the past few years trying to save his school.

Now he has the unpleasant task of persuading residents to shut it down. Not that he wants it to happen, but he sees no other good option.

Voters will decide next month whether to consolidate the district with neighboring Olney ISD – the two school boards have already agreed – and bus their children 12 miles southeast and across the county line.

Many here believe closing the school would spell Megargel’s death.

More Texas towns could face such a choice soon. Legislators may discuss consolidation during the special session starting next week. And changes to school finance laws could speed the end for dozens of schools that, though struggling, remain the heartbeat of their shrinking towns.

But in Megargel, 140 miles west of Dallas, some residents aren’t giving up without a fight. They vow to reject the consolidation proposal. And one student is trying to raise money to keep the school open her senior year.

Around town, everybody has a story about Megargel School – and a strong opinion about what should be done with it.

In the halls, Mr. Robertson greets each student by name. At a school this size – students from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade go to class in one building – everyone knows everyone.

“You know their parents. You know the teachers. You know what the pets’ names are,” he said.

The family atmosphere drew Mr. Robertson to this district with the funny name. “I’ve just fallen in love with the small schools.”

But the small class sizes are a boon and a bane. Larger districts benefit from economies of scale, and paying teachers to instruct a few students isn’t cost-effective.

Megargel spends more than twice what the average Texas school allocates per student, the principal said. But a walk through the nearly 80-year-old school building, where the students sound like a herd of elephants on creaky wood floors, makes evident that the district can’t afford much more than the bare essentials.

From the ancient piano in the auditorium to the aging gymnasium that bears strong resemblance to an airplane hangar, Megargel’s school is from another era. The two-story brick building still has coal chutes. The gym isn’t air-conditioned, and the classrooms are warmed with propane heaters.

“We don’t have any extra money,” Mr. Robertson said. Texas provides more per-pupil money for small districts. But a district must enroll at least 90 students to get that extra bump, so the 30 smallest districts don’t qualify.

Mr. Robertson is reluctantly pushing for consolidation, planning hot dog dinners to tell residents why sending their kids to Olney is the best option.

He knows, though, that asking voters to shutter the school is a tough sell: “The school really is the center of town.”

Virginia Pribble has seen other places drop off the map without a school.

“They lose their post office. They lose their city offices,” the veteran teacher said. “They become ghost towns.”

She’s worried most about what will happen to her students.

The one-on-one attention available at Megargel has attracted some troubled teenagers from other districts. Megargel received a rating of “academically unacceptable” from the state last year, but teachers said they’re working to improve test scores and to keep struggling students in school.

Mrs. Pribble, 61, who teaches language arts, drama, speech and art, fears that some students will get lost in the crowd at a larger school – or drop out.

Here, in the modern-day equivalent of the one-room schoolhouse, her largest class has 11 students. Mrs. Pribble grew up in Oklahoma but said her heart now belongs to the school she calls “the little house on the prairie.”

And if the school closes? Mrs. Pribble, who has taught here for 29 years, said she probably will just retire.

Sophomore Amanda Mosley isn’t sure what she’ll do next year – whether she’ll head to Olney or find another high school.

“I’ll probably follow wherever the rest of the people go,” she said.

Mention of Olney High School spurs sighs and eye rolls from Amanda and some of her friends. As of the 2004-05 school year, the Olney district had 787 students, according to Texas Education Agency records.

Off-campus lunch seems to be Olney’s biggest selling point. But fast food aside, most would rather stay put.

“You don’t get attention” at a bigger school, said Amanda, who is 16. “There, they’ve got groups. We all get along. There’s no reason we should have groups.”

Amanda is somewhat resigned to starting over at another school. While some are fighting consolidation, she said, “I’m not optimistic.”

Heather Kellar is holding out hope.

When the 17-year-old learned her school might shut its doors before her senior year, she didn’t mope. She acted.

Heather figured she needed to raise about $200,000 to keep the district in business another year. Given the size of the task, she bypassed bake sales and wrote to Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey. So far, her efforts have brought a little attention locally – but no sizable donations.

Now, she’s exploring other fundraising options, including a benefit concert.

“It’s all just for the love of my school,” said Heather, who’s in contention to be valedictorian next year.

Her class, with nine students, is the largest in the school.

Superintendent Don Berry appreciates Heather’s determination. When he came to the school five years ago, he promised students and teachers, “I will do everything I can to keep it open.”

But, Mr. Berry said, the school best known for having the first school band in the state no longer has enough money or students to continue: “We just can’t hang on.”

Megargel Mayor Danny Fails understands why Heather doesn’t want to leave the only school she’s ever attended.

For the kids’ sake – and the town’s – he would love to see the Megargel Mustangs fight another day. But he fears a “no” vote on May 13 would only delay the inevitable.

“I don’t want to close the school, but it’s not going to be here long anyway,” Mr. Fails said. “They might as well … get it over with.”

Mr. Fails, whose City Hall office sits among empty buildings on Cedar Street, said that despite his affinity for Megargel, the kids would be better off in a bigger district. In Olney, they could choose from a range of sports, clubs and classes.

“This will hurt Megargel,” said Mr. Fails, who does plumbing work when he’s not at City Hall. “But it’s going to be that way with all small towns eventually.”

Leo McWhorter remembers happier days for Megargel. Time was when the town had a grocery store, a theater, a bank, even a couple of cafes.

In more than 60 years living here, she has heard plenty of predictions about the school’s demise.

“I’ve seen them struggle, but they always come out of it,” said Mrs. McWhorter, who lives two doors down from the school.

This time is different.

But Mrs. McWhorter, who is 84, said Megargel should go down swinging. She spoke out at a town meeting earlier this year, urging residents to save their school.

Now, as she sits in her living room, she said it might be too late.

The town is withering away. And if the school closes, “there just really won’t be anything for people.”

Mrs. McWhorter’s children have long since graduated and left town. Still, she said she “just can’t hardly stand” seeing Megargel die.

“You can see it’s going down, down, down,” she said. “The last thing to go is the school.”