The top reported proficiency rate is 40% in Math. The lowest is 28% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on Hayes Middle School
Hayes Middle School sits on Strawberry Road in Saint Albans, a small historic river town at the confluence of the Kanawha and Coal Rivers in Kanawha County, part of the broader Charleston metropolitan area. The school serves grades six through eight as a regular public school in the Kanawha County Schools district. Enrollment is moderate for a middle school, with each grade level roughly comparable in size. The student body is overwhelmingly white, with small shares of students identifying as Black, multiracial, Hispanic, or Asian. Data on free or reduced-price lunch eligibility was not available, so the economic profile of the enrolled families cannot be characterized from what was provided. Information on students with individualized education programs and English learners was also missing.
Saint Albans itself is a residential community with a modest commercial downtown along MacCorkle Avenue, where shops, restaurants, and the Alban Arts Center give the core some street-level life. The city manages several parks and has recently established flatwater trail access along the rivers, adding recreational infrastructure. Beyond that downtown strip, the built environment is auto-oriented, with major highways and nearby interstates routing through the area. Schools here are distributed across residential neighborhoods rather than clustered downtown, and Hayes shares the city with another middle school, a high school, and several elementary schools feeding into the broader feeder pattern. The town has been losing population since the last census, and no major new housing or commercial development projects surfaced in the available research. Publicly reported major employer information for Saint Albans was not found, though the broader Charleston metro carries healthcare, government, and chemical manufacturing.
Academically, Hayes shows a consistent pattern across its three grade levels on the West Virginia General Summative Assessment. In math, proficiency sits in a middling band for sixth and eighth grade, with seventh grade dipping below that. English language arts follows a similar shape: sixth and eighth grade land in a moderate range, while seventh grade drops more noticeably. Science results for eighth grade are the weakest of the reported subjects, with fewer than a third of tested students reaching proficiency. Participation was full or nearly full across every grade and subject, which means the results reflect the whole student body rather than a partial sample. No multi-year trend data was available beyond the current year, so there is no way to tell from the provided information whether these numbers represent improvement, decline, or stability. A parent may want to look into the seventh-grade dip and the science results further with the school, since both stand out within Hayes's own grade-level pattern.
Housing in the zip code around Hayes is quite affordable compared with both state and national benchmarks, with typical home values well below the state figure and far below the national one. Home values have been declining modestly year over year, which fits the broader population-loss context in Saint Albans. The estimated monthly mortgage cost in this area is low relative to national norms, and the price-to-income ratio sits below the national midpoint. Rent data was not available for this location. For a family already in the area or considering moving in, housing costs are unlikely to be a barrier, though the declining population and lack of visible development projects paint a picture of a community that is contracting rather than growing.
The Kanawha County Schools district brief did not surface any parent-relevant changes meeting a lasting-impact threshold, so there is nothing to report on recent referendums, curriculum shifts, consolidations, or major board decisions. Program offerings, staffing details, discipline data, and course-access information for Hayes were not available in the provided material. Title I status was also not reported. A family evaluating this school would want to ask directly about those gaps, particularly around academic support programs, gifted or advanced coursework, and any interventions tied to the seventh-grade and science proficiency levels noted here.
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