Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 3, 1993 TAG: 9303030260
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
BUILDER PICKED FOR NEW SCHOOL
Kenbridge Construction Co. will build the new Blacksburg Elementary School.The Montgomery County School Board awarded the contract to the Southside Virginia company Tuesday night.
Kenbridge was the low bidder, proposing to build the school on a Prices Fork Road site near Hethwood for $4.57 million. Construction is planned to begin this spring, with the first pupils expected in the fall of 1994.
Four of seven companies offered bids under the $4.6 million that the architect estimated the school would cost. Together with an optional remote temperature-control system, the price of the school is $4.61 million.
Superintendent Harold Dodge noted that the county will be able to build a 600-pupil school in Blacksburg for the same price it paid for the new 480-pupil Falling Branch Elementary School in Christiansburg.
Dodge attributed the low cost to a continued slump in the construction industry, and the fact that the school system asked for bids before a wave of new public construction begins under the bond issue approved by state voters last fall.
At the beginning of the meeting, David Smith, a forestry professor at Virginia Tech, again pleaded with the board to spare a stand of trees on the school site for an outdoor natural laboratory.
"If you do not take advantage of this opportunity now, it will be lost forever," said Smith, who lives near the school site.
Larry Schoff, the school system's maintenance director, said an entry road to the school will be moved to the west to save as many of the trees as possible.
Also speaking to the board were citizens on each side of the debate over whether the board should return to the use of "Christmas" and "Easter" to identify school holidays that are now called "winter" and "spring" break.
The board declined to answer a question by the Rev. Eddie Booth, who wanted the board to show him that the United States was not founded on Christian principles.
Dodge told the board that neither he nor his staff was schooled in constitutional law and could not answer Booth's question. Dodge said that if the board wanted the question answered, it would be necessary to hire outside help.
"Christ condemned all religions other than Christianity," Booth said, speaking to the board in favor of the religious names.
Booth said a group of children recently gathered in a restroom at Shawsville Elementary School and by repeating the words "Blood Mary" 13 times conjured up a demon in a mirror that frightened them. That's the kind of thing that happens when God is taken out of the schools, he said.
However, most people, including three students, spoke in favor of keeping the secular names that have been used for several years.
Brian Storrie of Blacksburg warned that if the board returned to use of the religious names for religious reasons, as some have suggested, it might be in danger of violating the guarantee against state-supported religion.
Phyllis Albritton of Blacksburg said she regretted the division the issue has caused in the county, adding that time could better be spent on pressing educational issues such as the dropout rate and literacy.
The large number of speakers who have turned out for the past several board meetings to talk about holiday names led to a discussion by the School Board about what changes might need to be made in its guidelines for public comment at meetings.
Some board members were concerned that speakers on controversial issues were monopolizing the time for public comment.
Dodge was asked to prepare suggested revisions to the board's public-comment policy.