Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 13, 1990 TAG: 9003133360
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK LAYMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Michele Allen, a senior who is president of the student body at Northside High School, told a community meeting at William Byrd Middle School that the consolidation of Roanoke and Roanoke County would result in "a lower quality of education than we have now."
Unless the consolidation plan is changed, the school board of the Roanoke Metropolitan Government would have five members from the former city and four members from the former county. And a city-dominated school board would be "a potential disaster," she said.
On the other hand, William Byrd High School senior Betsy Starnes said, "Consolidation does not necessarily mean worse schools for Roanoke County."
Starnes surveyed 180 students in social studies classes at the high school and found that 114 opposed consolidation, 22 favored it, 30 were undecided and 14 didn't care.
A comment she heard frequently from students, she said, was "I can to go to a city school now if I want to, so why do we need to consolidate?"
But people who say that are missing the point of consolidation, which is to "unite two feuding bodies into one," Starnes said.
That feuding might have, among other things, caused Roanoke to lose the Piedmont Airlines hub to Charlotte, N.C., in the late 1970s, she said.
And while Northern Virginia is growing and prospering, "We in Western Virginia are [falling] farther and farther behind. . . . The future of the Roanoke Valley lies in consolidation," Starnes said.
Allen didn't buy that argument. Economic prosperity isn't worth the loss of the county's excellent school system, she said.
Both students were applauded by the crowd. But Debra Holdren of East County Citizens for Education said most of the parents and teachers she has talked with do not like the consolidation plan.
Harry Nickens, who represents Vinton and East Roanoke County on the Board of Supervisors, told the crowd, "I have yet to see the benefit" of consolidation for residents of either the city or the county.
Nickens was one of the county's consolidation negotiators, and that is as close as he has come in public to saying whether he is for or against the plan.
Nickens said the plan "would have a much better chance of being approved" by county voters if there was not so much concern over its impact on schools.
Details of the Roanoke Metropolitan Government's school system would be left up to its school administration and school board, he said.
For example, one person asked what the grading scale in the consolidated school system would be. The lowest passing grade in the county schools is 75; in the city it is 65. "That's not a question for the negotiating teams, City Council or the Board of Supervisors to get involved with," Nickens said.
Nobody asked about busing. But people did ask whether the consolidated government would have "neighborhood schools."
The city's and the county's ideas of neighborhood schools "don't exactly mesh," Nickens said.
To illustrate his point, he brought along a map of school attendance zones in the city and the county. He pointed out that children from neighborhoods in both South Roanoke and Northwest Roanoke attend Crystal Spring Elementary School, while children who attend Fallon Park Elementary School go on to three different middle schools and to both of the city's high schools.
Again, however, the consolidated government's school board would have the job of "defining or redefining `neighborhood schools,' " Nickens said.
Members of a recently formed group, Citizens Against Merger, handed out literature at the meeting.
by CNB