Willis Elementary School is located in the southwestern section of Floyd County. This area is surrounded by picturesque scenery of rolling hills, forest-covered mountains and swift running streams.
Willis, once known as the village of Hylton, built the original one-room school (located on the hill near the present Willis Cemetery) which was open for a five-month term. In the year 1906, that school was moved to the lower two rooms of an old store building. The term was increased to seven months per year. The School Board notified the community that a new building would have to be erected if the graded school were to receive any more state aid. On September 3, 1917, Willis High School was opened and housed part of the elementary grades.
In 1939, Grades one through seven were moved out of the high school building to the newly built elementary school just outside the community of Willis. The two-story brick structure originally had eight classrooms, a library, a "gymatorium," and a kitchen. In 1952, four classrooms were added to accommodate students from schools in Stuart and Alum Ridge. Construction of a second addition was completed in November 2000. This provided students and teachers a state-of-the-art computer lab, a science lab, and two additional classrooms.
Back of school after addition in 1952.
WES School in 1957 shows the original part of the school painted white
(paint was later removed)
Back of school after addition in 2000.
We are now enjoying our new addition at WES which includes a new media center, two new classrooms, music room, additional restrooms, two resource rooms, and a multi-purpose room for physical education and other activities. The current gym will serve primarily as the cafeteria and backup for other activities as needed.
At the present time, Willis Elementary School has 226 students in fourteen homerooms with support from a media specialist, P. E., art and music instructors, a counselor, and resource teachers. Instructional assistants round out the staff to support our students in our expectation of success. This is the second year (2011-12) we have had a Pre-School class at WES.
Willis Elementary appreciates all the community support for our school.
