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

DATE: THURSDAY, February 14, 1991                   TAG: 9102140444
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Southwest bureau
DATELINE: TAZEWELL                                LENGTH: Short

4 SCHOOLS MAY CLOSE IN TAZEWELL

A majority of the Tazewell County Board of Supervisors is opposed to a School Board plan to close four small schools next year.

Supervisors voted 3-2 this week to send school officials a resolution prompted by a citizens' group calling itself the Save Our Small Schools Coalition.

The School Board is considering closing Cove, Thompson Valley, Rivermont and Falls Mills schools and transferring their pupils to larger schools with more programs.

The board has said the closings could save $768,000 the first year in operating costs and $330,000 over five years in maintenance costs, as well as reduce the number of combined grades and improve the pupil-teacher ratio.

Projections are that by the 1993-94 school year, enrollments will drop at Cove from 52 to 18 pupils; Rivermont, 85 to 57, and Falls Mills, 98 to 88.

Thompson Valley could gain about five pupils in that time.

The resolution states that small schools provide a good education, serve as the heart of their communities and prevent hazardous-bus travel over longer distances.

Eppie Steele, president of the Falls Mills PTA, presented the supervisors with a petition containing 850 signatures opposing the closings.

by CNB