Kanawha County Schools maintenance workers began removing documents Friday from the abandoned Watts Elementary School, on Charleston's West Side, and the school system's maintenance director refused to let a reporter see the documents that were removed.
Nevertheless, Kanawha schools Superintendent Ron Duerring claims the documents in the school weren't confidential. Their removal followed another news media report on the school's poor condition.
When the Gazette-Mail reported in May about complaints of vandalism, prostitution and breaking and entering at Watts and J.E. Robins elementary schools - both of which closed at the end of the 2013-14 school year - the structures hadn't been boarded up. Photos of the 2013-14 school year class could still be seen on a bulletin board through one of Watts' windows.
Watts has since been boarded, but when WSAZ-TV reporters visited Watts on Thursday, they reported finding two "wide open" doors.
The TV news outlet reported that it had received pictures of old student documents still inside Watts.
"Some of the documents are labeled 'free/reduced lunch,' 'sheet of forms to return,' 'photo release 2013-2014' and some appear to be medical documents," WSAZ reported.
"The papers are scattered throughout several rooms inside the school, according to the photos, and were taken within the last two weeks. Some of the pictures show former students' pictures alongside their names, still hanging on the school walls."
Its online video included pictures of manila envelopes with the labels it mentioned, but the video or picture quality wasn't clear enough to make out what was on the loose documents pictured - or to make out whether the television news outlet had sought to digitally blur any confidential information on the pictured documents.
Duerring said he visited Watts on Friday and didn't find any confidential documents, not even graded student papers.
"That free and reduced file was empty when I opened it up," he said.
He said he didn't know how long he spent at the school before deciding that no documents there were confidential. He said all students' confidential documents were moved to Edgewood Elementary, where Watts and J.E. Robins students were sent when the new school opened in the 2014-15 school year.
Duerring wasn't at Watts around 11:30 a.m. when the Gazette-Mail visited the school. All the doors were locked then.
At about 11:45 a.m., five workers who said they were with the Kanawha County Schools maintenance department showed up with a work van and a box truck, and some declined to say what they were doing beyond cleaning up.
"What am I supposed to haul out of here?" one asked as he followed other employees into the main building through the breezeway doors, which an employee opened with a key.
Some workers emerged around 12:45 p.m. One said he was surprised no one set the paper inside the building on fire - Keith Vititoe, the school system's security director, told the Gazette-Mail in May that someone actually had previously started a fire in a trash can there.
At about 1 p.m., Terry Hollandsworth, the school system's maintenance director, showed up. He said workers were at the school to remove documents in response to the WSAZ report. He said he and Duerring had visited the school earlier that morning.
"He asked me to go ahead and clean it up, so I sent a crew over here today to get all the paper that's in there and the files and bag 'em up and get rid of them," Hollandsworth said.
He said most of the papers were blank forms, and said he'd like to shred and recycle them.
In May, Hollandsworth said there were no student records in the buildings.
Hollandsworth then urged a reporter and photojournalist to leave the property because the maintenance workers didn't want to have their pictures taken. When the Gazette-Mail protested and a reporter said he wanted to see the documents, Hollandsworth said, "It's going out of here in bags."
At around 1:30 p.m., the workers emerged with about five boxes and at least two bags, put them in the vehicles and drove off. Hollandsworth said they weren't done unloading the school.
"Because of your pictures," Hollandsworth said. "I asked you not to and you did, so we'll come back later."
Duerring said someone pulled a board off a window to get into Watts and that the building is being checked weekly.
He said the school system now is working with the Charleston Urban Renewal Authority to get Watts and Robins listed on the National Register of Historic Places so people interested in buying them can get a tax break.
Jim Crawford, the Kanawha school board president, said he supports still trying to market the buildings or give them to a nonprofit before trying to tear them down.
WSAZ quoted Adam Knauff, who lives near the school, as criticizing the county board and administration for not doing more to help the property. The station's story online didn't mention that Knauff lost his May race for a school board seat, for which he competed against board members Crawford and Ric Cavender.
Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazettemail.com, facebook.com/ryanedwinquinn, 304-348-1254 or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.