The School on the Corner

Central Elementary was a school of a couple hundred nestled in the heart of a small town called Waynesville located in Haywood County, NC. For years rural counties in the western part of the state have been declining in population and school districts have been losing students  as well as funding.

Due to these concerns, the school board announced the decision to close Central giving this tight-knit community just a few months notice. Amidst a lawsuit and strong emotions, we documented the reasons behind the school's closing and what a local school can mean to a community's identity.

This trailer introduces a twenty minute mini-documentary made by myself and fellow photojournalist Angeli Wright called The School on the Corner: The Closing of a Mountain School. Angeli and I both shot footage, photos and edited the video together. The images below are some of the photos I took in contribution to this story.

A link to the full length mini-doc as well as a written story and photos is here.