THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 2, 1995 TAG: 9502280091
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
THE FIRST SIGN of trouble began with a ``bubble.''
When school maintenance employees looked closer, they were startled: Sections of the brick facade at Blair Middle School had pulled away from the building's concrete wall structure. Officials worried that the bricks would tumble.
Since that initial scare in mid-January, parts of the yard have been fenced off and a roofed corridor built on the side facing Colley Avenue.
While the school grounds are safer now, the problem couldn't have come at a worse time. School officials are wondering where they'll find the estimated $400,000 to $1 million to make repairs.
``We're in tough times, and that was very poor timing to have an unexpected cost of this nature,'' said Clyde Burnett, assistant superintendent of business and finance for Norfolk schools. ``We've taken temporary measures to protect the students, but it must be corrected this summer.''
The school system's $27.5 million capital projects fund, expected to last until 1999, already is maxed out. Using it to pay for the Blair project would mean less money for renovations and air-conditioning promised to other schools.
The Blair problem is the latest fiscal jolt to hit the school system. In December, officials learned that the cost of enlarging Granby High, budgeted at $15.1 million, would cost at least another $6 million.
School Board members hope to convince the City Council to ante up more money for their capital fund. The city lopped $21.5 million off the School Board's $49 million capital request.
Blair, opened in 1922, is symptomatic of Norfolk's aging schools, which average 42 years. Blair has waited in line for renovation for years as other buildings with more urgent needs got first dibs: Maury High, Ruffner Middle, Lafayette-Winona Middle, Norview High and Granby.
George Boothby, Blair's principal, worries that the cost of repairing the building's exterior will delay plans to renovate the office and other interior work.
``This is an extensive proposition,'' Boothby said of the exterior repairs.
As the building has aged, it has shifted and moved, officials said, separating the brick veneer from its concrete structure.
``It's pulled away enough in some areas that you can stick your arm in between the brick facade and the concrete slab,'' Boothby said.
Replacing the brick would be the most expensive remedy, Burnett said. Stucco or some other exterior coating would cost less.
Boothby, a Blair alumnus, said he is worried that officials eventually may decide to build a new middle school and tear down the existing one.
``There are a lot of us who don't want to see it torn down. It's a beautiful school,'' Boothby said. ``The building has served its intended function well. It's been kept in really good shape; it's just starting to get old.'' by CNB