BOTETOURT BOARD WANTS 2 SCHOOLS BUILT

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

DATE: FRIDAY, January 3, 1992                   TAG: 9201030272
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
BOTETOURT BOARD WANTS 2 SCHOOLS BUILT
A plan to build a new middle school in Cloverdale, a new elementary school in Daleville and four additional classrooms at Troutville Elementary School, all by the end of the decade, was approved Thursday by the Botetourt County School Board.
The $12 million plan, which includes several other projects, is subject to approval by the county Board of Supervisors.
Funding would come from the county and from state Literary Fund loans.
The board's action comes less than a month after a retreat with the Board of Supervisors at which an earlier plan to turn James River High School in Buchanan into a combined high school and middle school was scrapped.
That project would have cost nearly what it will cost to build a middle school.
Still, the 10-year capital improvements plan adopted Thursday night by the School Board would move Botetourt schools into the state-recommended middle school concept and help alleviate projected overcrowding at several elementary schools.
Under the plan, the classrooms at Troutville Elementary would be added in 1993, the Cloverdale middle school would be completed in 1995 and the elementary school in Daleville would be built by 1998.
The county already owns land in Cloverdale for a middle school site but has yet to purchase an elementary school site in Daleville.
Troutville Elementary, where enrollment is 468, is operating with two mobile classrooms, Superintendent C.S. McClure said.
The plan also calls for adding air conditioning and upgrading the library at James River in 1994, converting Botetourt Intermediate School in Fincastle into a middle school and also adding air conditioning there by 1995, and bringing air conditioning to Lord Botetourt High School in Daleville some time after that.
McClure said the Board of Supervisors does not have to approve the entire plan but may take portions of the plan to adopt. "We feel it's a good idea to put our projected needs on paper," he said.
A new middle school in Cloverdale would be built for about 750 pupils. Once converted, Botetourt Intermediate would have room for about 400.
Both schools would be attended by sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders. Currently, sixth-graders in Botetourt attend elementary schools.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB