ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 13, 1990                   TAG: 9003133412
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

NO CERTAIN FUTURE FOR MERGED SCHOOLS

I AM DELIGHTED that the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors has decided to give citizens of Roanoke County the opportunity to voice their opinions on consolidation in the voting booth. However, I must respond to Alan Brittle's remarks quoted in the Roanoke Times & World-News Feb. 26 that opponents to consolidation are either "racists on the school issue" or "anti-tax folks."

I am opposed to consolidation, and schools are my major concern. However, I am not a racist and resent Brittle's implication that no decent human being could be anti-consolidation.

The current negotiators cannot guarantee what a future school board might or might not do in a consolidated school system. They cannot guarantee what a judge might decide if the school zoning issue is taken to court. They cannot guarantee that the county's higher grading scale will be adopted, thus insuring that high expectations will be maintained.

I suggest that in the consolidation debate, both proponents and opponents stick to the facts and not resort to remarks that will enrage respectable citizens on both sides of the issue.\ BRENDA B. GRIFFIN\ ROANOKE COUNTY 


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