CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — West Virginia saw some of the sharpest drops in enrollment in the entire country from 2020-24.

Those numbers don’t pair a pretty picture in a state where school financial support is largely based on the number of students.

The drop translates into consolidation - seemingly no matter how hard the community objects – along with school closings.

"Yes, 21 last year. Looking back five years, there was about 50 that closed in a five-year-period. Just in the past year, we almost doubled that amount,” West Virginia Department of Education director of school facilities Micah Witlow told Eyewitness News.

More than 16,000 students were gone within four years and each carries a price tag for the county lost in state aid.

"State aid per pupil in this state currently is - a ballpark figure would be - around $6,000,” said Uriah Cummings with DOE school financial operation.

The state doesn't speculate why enrollment is dropping. Others suggest West Virginia's declining population, a lower birth rate and school choice options such as home schooling and charter schools.

DuPont Middle School will get most of the students from the recently closed school in East Bank.

DuPont principal Tommy Canterbury expects most students will make the switch without difficulty - despite emotional efforts to keep East Bank open – in the same way kids from Cedar Grove did earlier as Kanawha County's student population shrank .

"While no one likes to see schools close and things like that happen, unfortunately it does,” Canterbury said. “When things like that happen we have to make the best of them and we have to talk about being proud to be from the eastern end, not just proud for being from East Bank or DuPont."

State officials said 85% occupancy is close to ideal for a school, but when the numbers move into the 50% range it can trigger some hard choices coupled with the condition of the building.

"You just have to make that call looking at the big picture,” Witlow said. “Obviously, the impact to families and communities is real. There's no saying that's not accurate."

Those 21 schools the state board OK’d for closing were in Clay (pending funding ), Harrison, Kanawha, Nicholas, Preston, Tyler, Wetzel and Wood counties.