Local and state elected officials joined members of the Mathews School Board on a tour of the county’s three schools last Thursday.

Beginning at Thomas Hunter Middle School, the group walked through Mathews Elementary before boarding a bus for the third and final destination, Mathews High School.

School board chair Dr. Mari Gibbs and members Linda Hodges, Calvin Morgan, Mary Kathryn Diggs and newly elected school board member Amy Bohannon-Stewart (who will take office in January) were joined by Del. Keith Hodges (R-Urbanna) and State Sen. Ryan McDougle (R-Mechanicsville) and his legislative assistant Joseph White, as well as county supervisors’ chair Tim Doss, members Janice Phillips and Mike Walls, and assistant county administrator Judi Green.

At the start of the tour, school board member Linda Hodges thanked McDougle for his help in securing $1 million in state funds the division received for asbestos abatement at THMS.

Those ongoing renovations were showcased, as well as the move of the Family and Consumer Science kitchen from THMS to MHS (with a commercial-sized refrigerator). At THMS, the group was led by SCA officers Lilly Ashberry, Madison Ball and Ellie Sowers.

As enrollment continues to decline, Superintendent of Schools Dr. David S. Daniel explained that a school consolidation committee is currently looking at plans to reduce the division to two schools, with the school board office staff to be moved into Thomas Hunter. Responding to a question from Walls about what the division would do if enrollment were to increase and the county were to go back to three schools, Daniel replied that the school board office staff would relocate elsewhere to free up that space.

At MHS, principal Drew Greve spoke about the need for improvements to the athletic fields and facilities, often one of the first places that visitors to the division encounter. He mentioned that MHS is one of only two public VHSL high schools in the state (the other being Tangier) that doesn’t have a regulation 400-meter track.