BOARD OKS ADDITIONS TO SCHOOLS

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

DATE: THURSDAY, March 25, 1993                   TAG: 9303250397
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: W-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
BOARD OKS ADDITIONS TO SCHOOLS
After calling a meeting to approve its budget Tuesday night, the Salem School Board postponed discussion of its financial situation and approved, instead, plans to add on to two elementary schools.
Superintendent Wayne Tripp said he was unable to fully prepare the $19.2 million budget for discussion because he became ill after the meeting was called. The board will review the budget at a meeting Tuesday, two days before it must submit it to City Council.
During that budget meeting, the board also is expected to discuss the pay scale for teachers and other school employees.
The board did approve plans for additions to West Salem and South Salem elementary schools and boiler replacements at G.W. Carver Elementary School. The three projects together will cost $1,040,000.
The board approved designs submitted by Lawrence Perry and Associates to add four kindergarten and two regular classrooms at West Salem and four first-grade classrooms at South Salem. However, it asked that plans for a courtyard at South Salem be redesigned to put that space under roof.
The redesign will delay putting the projects out to bid by one week, Tripp said. They will be advertised April 4, with bids due April 29.
Tripp said he was afraid the open space inside a fenced-in area would lure children onto school grounds after school hours.
The school already has problems with children climbing onto its roof, and other board members worried the courtyard might exacerbate that problem.
"We don't want to create a problem nor do we want to miss an opportunity for useful space just for the sake of a week's time," Tripp said.
"I hate to slow [the project] down . . . but that thing scares me, for the safety of the children," said board member Walter Franke.
In what it called an emergency situation, the board also approved a $12,500 bid by D.F. Lynch Roofing and Sheet Metal Inc. to fix a leaky roof at East Salem Elementary School. The board decided to place a second roof on top of the first rather than remove the roof, which contains asbestos.
The new roof will be built during spring break, April 12-16.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB