Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 3, 1990 TAG: 9003032557
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
By contrast, the average kindergarten at Christiansburg Primary has 22 children. But the school has nine kindergarten classes.
Six years ago, Shawsville Elementary began the school year with 245 kids. As of this week, there are 336.
The building hasn't been expanded to accommodate the increase of 91 children. Principal Dale Margheim expects from nine to 14 more pupils next year.
Two classroom teaching positions have been added since 1984, plus two special education teachers to serve 14 of the children.
Shawsville Elementary is an "open classroom" school - one of four in the county designed with few permanent walls. To make room for the enrollment growth, partitions have been rearranged and special-education classes placed in what were once workrooms.
"Having an open classroom school hurts us," Ryan said. "Everybody thinks you can just push desks closer together."
A fourth-grade teacher had up to 33 pupils in her class at one point this year. Now she has 30. The county's average fourth-grade class size is 24 or 25.
"I can't provide enough for the highs [high achievers] and I cannot provide enough for the lows," the teacher said. "I can get them from point A to point B . . . but when it comes to instruction and being able to manage it, I cannot."
Some parents worry that the large classes are hampering their children's learning.
Nancy Nester says her son makes good grades but has behavior problems. "The child's not getting the attention he needs" at school, she said.
"I've already taken one of my children to a private school in Christiansburg and I'll take the other one out next year if something's not done," said another parent, Michael Finn-McKenzie.
Finn-McKenzie took this step because he did not want to run the risk of his daughter landing in a combined class with 10 kindergartners and eight first-graders with one teacher.
Noise tends to travel over and around the partitions and children are easily distracted, Finn-McKenzie said. A teacher told him that she realizes some children don't hear her instructions because "there's just so much noise."
Another parent, Julia Milton, is afraid a large new school in Christiansburg would lead to a push for consolidation of the Shawsville, Elliston-Lafeyette and Christiansburg elementaries.
"We want to keep a community school," Ryan said.
The parents regret their quiet aquiescence to decisions made by school officials, such as the decision to have a combined classroom of kindergarteners and first-graders rather than to hire another teacher.
"I think a lot of us closed our eyes to it and we trusted them to take care of it," Milton said. "Other parts of the county are more vocal than we are."
They have only praises for Marty Childress, the area's School Board representative. "We can't blame it on Marty," Nester said. "He has tried, and if he doesn't get any support on the Board of Supervisors, he's up the creek."
The school's budget request last fall included three new teaching positions, two mobile classrooms with bathrooms and drinking fountains, and covered walkways to connect them to the school. Shawsville has one mobile classroom - used this year for the learning disabled.
The School Board's proposed 1990-91 budget does not include money for mobile classrooms or covered walkways. The budget includes money for eight new elementary teaching positions for the school system, but does not say where the teachers would be assigned.
"It's of grave concern to everybody," School Board Chairwoman Virginia Kennedy said of crowded elementary schools. "We would like more relief, there's no question about it."
Kennedy said the board and Superintendent Harold Dodge originally wanted 13 new elementary teaching positions and 15 more teachers' aides for next year. The number has been trimmed to eight teachers and three aides.
A capital-improvement plan calls for the construction of classrooms, restrooms and a gym at Shawsville Elementary in 1991-92 at a cost of $500,000. This is the board's wish, but there is no guarantee what will happen.
One possibility is that the new school for Christiansburg could be built closer to Shawsville to draw children from both directions, Dodge said Thursday.
A bond referendum could possibly include additions to Shawsville and Elliston-Lafayette elementaries, as well as funds to build the two new schools, Dodge and Kennedy said.
But Kennedy said another possibility is redrawing school attendance lines - a proposal that aroused strong opposition from mainly Blacksburg parents last year.
"If the situation gets too desperate this will have to come up again," Kennedy said.
Last year's redistricting proposal did not address overcrowding at Shawsville and Elliston-Lafayette, but "if things got too bad it could" this year, she said.
Dodge said the administration was sending a letter to the concerned Shawsville parents to invite them to tell architects and school officials what they believe the school needs.
"They haven't been left out of the loop," he said. He said it was too early to say what would be done for the coming school year to relieve overcrowding.
A number of parents said they did not think Joe Stewart, who represents them on the Board of Supervisors, understands their school's needs.
"I don't think he's representing us on this issue," said Nancy Nester. "I think anything that comes up that concerns money, he says `No.' I think he has a tempering influence. . .but I don't think he's representing us as well as he could."
Stewart says parents rarely contact him about their concerns about the schools.
"I would like to hear more from them," he said. "But there's very little we can do about it, other than recommend to the county administrator. I can't run to the superintendent" every time a school has a problem.
Stewart says the parents should lobby several members of the School Board, not just Childress. "If you want something done, make as much noise as you can." Stewart doesn't think the county needs two new elementary schools. Instead, he thinks additional rooms should be added to schools that need them.
"I've talked to the Board [of Supervisors] about it a number of times and I don't get very far," Stewart said. "I'd even be agreeable with a little tax raise to put the new rooms up."
by CNB