Fundraising snapshot reveals deep needs at Mount View School

As of Jan. 15, 2026, Mount View Middle High School in Welch is showing modest community fundraising success alongside clear, persistent needs. The school's public fundraising page reports $1,690 raised, two projects funded, one teacher supported and 29 donors — a small pool of resources for a Title I school serving 521 students in grades 6–12.

The numbers gain sharper meaning against the school’s profile. Mount View employs 44 teachers for about 521 students, yielding a student-teacher ratio near 11.8:1. Yet 95 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, and roughly 16 percent of students are identified as Black, Latinx, Native, or Asian. Those figures point to concentrated poverty and racial diversity in a rural coalfield county where schools often serve as both educational and social safety nets.

Local fundraising platforms fill gaps left by constrained school budgets, providing classroom supplies, enrichment materials and targeted supports. But piecemeal donations cannot substitute for sustained public investment. High rates of economic insecurity are linked to worse health outcomes, increased food and housing instability, and greater barriers to mental health and chronic disease care — all factors that affect attendance, learning and long-term community wellbeing.

Mount View’s address at 950 Mount View Rd, Welch, WV 24801 anchors the school in the town’s recovery and resilience work. Teachers and parents in McDowell County have long stretched limited dollars to keep classrooms running, and the school’s DonorsChoose presence invites further help from neighbors, alumni and regional partners. The small number of projects and donors reported highlights both local generosity and the scale of unmet need.

For readers, this snapshot is a reminder that supporting schools here is also a public health action: classroom tools and steady programming reduce stress on families, keep children engaged, and can lessen burden on local health and social services. Policy-level responses matter too — stable school funding, expanded social supports and investments in rural healthcare access would address root causes that small donations cannot.

What comes next is collective. Community members can consider sustained support for classroom projects, local organizations can coordinate to reduce duplication, and county leaders can press for resources that match the intensity of need. For Mount View students, modest donations help today; broader policy changes will be needed to change the trajectory for families across McDowell County.