THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 16, 1994 TAG: 9409140136
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 18 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
No one showed up Monday night to help the School Board decide how to choose new high school attendance zones in the southern portions of the city.
So, at the first of three public hearings on the topic, the board was on its own in a discussion of dueling values:
Would students rather attend crowded Great Bridge High out of loyalty to their community, or leave their neighborhoods to attend the new, roomier Hickory High scheduled to open in 1996?
``I'm a little bit disappointed that folks didn't come and express some opinions on this,'' said Superintendent C. Fred Bateman.
Another public hearing on a proposed 10-year Capital Improvement Plan also failed to draw speakers.
Among four attendance zone proposals advanced by school officials, board members seemed to favor the one that would do the most to relieve crowding at Great Bridge High, at the risk of severing the school's ties with neighborhoods traditionally identified with it.
That proposal would shift the Caroon Farms, Bridgefield and Great Bridge Gardens neighborhoods into the Hickory High zone.
The other three proposals left either Caroon Farms, Bridgefield or Great Bridge Gardens - in various combinations - within the Great Bridge High zone but did less to relieve crowding at the school.
Under all the proposals, a chunk of Deep Creek High's zone would be moved to Hickory; Great Bridge Middle schools North and South would be reconfigured to house sixth- through eighth-graders; Great Bridge Middle North would feed Hickory High; and Great Bridge Middle South would feed Great Bridge High.
School Board members said students in affected neighborhoods may be looking forward to attending a new school with all its space, new furniture and technological wizardry. Students in those neighborhoods already have helped pick the colors and mascot for Hickory.
The board is scheduled to hold two more public hearings on attendance zones and make a decision in November.
Meanwhile, school officials' proposed Capital Improvement Plan, with a $233 million pricetag for the first five years, drew some discussion from the School Board.
Board member Thomas Bray asked the bottom-line question.
``Are we going to reduce the number of mobile units?''
The school system now has close to 300 portable classrooms for its 41 school buildings.
Lenard Wright, program administrator for planning and development, said he believed the Capital Improvement Plan would reduce portable classrooms over the next decade, if every year the School Board adjusted the plan for growth and got the money needed.
``I think that's what the public wants to hear,'' Bray said. MEMO: The School Board will hold public hearings on the proposed Hickory High
attendance zones at 7 p.m. Oct. 10 and Nov. 14 in the board room of the
school administration building in the city's municipal center off Cedar
Road. The board also will accept public comments on the Capital
Improvement Plan at 7 p.m. Sept. 26. If you wish to speak at any of
these meetings, call 547-0153 to put your name on the list. by CNB