ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, October 2, 1996 TAG: 9610020025
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
Three weeks later, Montgomery County School Board members are getting the message.
The county Board of Supervisors really doesn't want to build a new Blacksburg Middle School on the outskirts of town.
Members of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors and the School Board met for about two hours Monday to discuss how best to deal with the need for additional middle school space to serve the Blacksburg area.
Afterward, nothing had been settled except for the perception among some School Board members that the supervisors were pushing renovation or nothing in Blacksburg.
Some School Board members said they were being forced to jump through hoops and to accept an "either-or" proposition in Monday's gathering, which marked the second time in a month the two full boards had met, after not meeting for more than a year.
The School Board wants to build a new school that could accommodate up to 1,200 pupils on a new site away from downtown Blacksburg. The Board of Supervisors has told the School Board, in a resolution passed 6 to 1 three weeks ago, that it favors either renovating the 40-year-old downtown school or building a new one on the current site.
A new middle school for Blacksburg is part of Montgomery County's $34 million, three-school building plan.
Annette Perkins, the School Board's chairwoman, requested Monday's meeting after the supervisors took their stand. After the session, she said the two boards were "back to square one. [The supervisors are] not willing to accept what our board has already voted on."
While the School Board makes decisions about how best to meet educational needs, a final decision rests with the Board of Supervisors because it holds the purse strings to any building project.
Near the end of the two hours, School Board member Michael Smith vented his frustration at the impasse.
"We've been here for an hour and a half and successfully, we've done nothing," Smith said.
He wondered whether information the School Board had provided to support its choice was going to do anything to change the Board of Supervisors' decision, "or are we going to have to jump through more hoops?"
Although the supervisors' resolution last month supported either building a new school on the current property or renovation, School Board members said it was clear that renovation was the choice most supervisors supported.
While Henry Jablonski, chairman of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors, sees his board's resolution as "diplomatic," School Board Vice Chairman Barry Worth disagreed.
"I don't think it's too diplomatic if you've got an either-or in there and one of them's not going to work," Worth said.
"Just tell us 'This is what you've got to do,'" Smith said.
At first appearing ready to argue Smith's contention of hoop-jumping, Supervisor Nick Rush backed off.
"As far as jumping through hoops," Rush said, then paused, "you're probably right," a comment that produced laughter by some of the 18 in the audience.
Rush complained that supporters of building new schools were wrongly blaming the supervisors for approving housing projects and other development while not providing the schools for increased population. Rush said the county's school-space crunch can be attributed to changes in education such as lowered teacher-to-student ratios that steadily reduce a building's rated capacity.
"The boogie woogie man ain't on this side of the table," Rush said, referring to his fellow supervisors.
Mary Beth Dunkenberger, a School Board member from Elliston, said many of the changes in education Rush was referring to were state and federal mandates such as inclusion and special education programs.
Supervisor Joe Gorman said he was concerned that the school system's plans for building new schools do not include information about what will happen to Blacksburg Middle School and other vacated buildings when they are replaced with new schools.
The work session ended with both boards saying they would discuss the matter more at upcoming separate meetings. The two boards then went into executive session to discuss properties proposed as sites for a new Christiansburg Middle School and a new Shawsville High School. No action was taken afterward.
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM/Staff. Students left Blacksburg Middle Schoolby CNBTuesday, as the debate over keeping the overcrowded, 40-year-old
school downtown continued. color.