It was not an easy decision to make.

But the Mathews County School Board made what it considered to be the best of a difficult situation, making the call to move the division’s eighth grade class to Mathews High School, beginning in the fall.

With declining enrollments, and several teaching positions coming vacant at the end of the school year, the division was faced with how best to use the personnel they have to provide the best education they can for all the students.

It would be awful to hire a couple new teachers (if those teachers could be found; consider the problems this year the school faced with the vacancy at eighth grade math) only to turn around a few months later and say to those newly hired teachers: “Thank you. You’ve done a great job. However, we’ve decided to go ahead with the change we were considering last year and your services are no longer needed.”

There are concerns about introducing younger children who might not yet be ready for the high school ex...