Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 8, 1990                   TAG: 9003081412
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV10   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: MARGARET CAMLIN NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                 LENGTH: Medium

SHAWSVILLE PARENTS WANT MORE TEACHERS, SPACE IN SCHOOL

"We feel like you have let us down," said Ellen Ryan, the school's PTA president. "We desperately need a mobile unit. We desperately need toilets." There are 28 kindergartners who share one toilet, for instance.

The school's new librarian, Margaret Smith, also asked the board for help, saying "there are not enough hours in the day to do any clerical or administrative work and spend any kind of quality time with children.

"There is no public library in the Shawsville area," Smith said. "It's really important that students have a decent library. Right now, this is not the case."

Smith asked for an aide for at least two half-days a week and an extra month's work in the summer. She said about half the books need to be pitched because they are either outdated or falling apart. She said she realized other librarians in the school system would want an aide as well.

Building a new school in Christiansburg - but closer to Shawsville - is "not only ludicrous but totally unacceptable to us and our problems," said Pam Bundy, Shawsville PTA vice president.

Bundy said other parents want classrooms added to the school to accommodate growth.

James Cole, a parent, said he has been relatively pleased with the work of the board and administration. "You have another opportunity to exhibit good management skills," he said.

One problem is that many people elsewhere in the county don't understand Shawsville. "We're not a single group of backwoods cousins," he said. "What we are is a mobile community - a bedroom community" for both Roanoke and the New River Valley. Most parents work outside Shawsville and "the community and the schools provide stability for our lives," he said.

He thanked school officials for the letter written last week to invite concerned parents to participate in planning and meet with architects to talk about the school's needs. "We already are," he said.

Parents, especially those in the PTA, have been lobbying for additional space and teachers for five years with few results, he said.

The board asked Superintendent Harold Dodge to compile an up-to-date report on enrollment projections and the space situation at Shawsville Elementary and all other county schools.