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

DATE: TUESDAY, May 18, 1993                   TAG: 9305180099
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium

OLD SCHOOL COULD GET A WHOLE LOT OF USE

Then what?

That's what a transition team is trying to decide.

Team members include Superintendent William Asbury, Business Manager Walt Shannon, Director of Operations Harry DeHaven, all from the school system, and County Administrator Joseph Morgan and Community Relations Coordinator Terri Gregory.

The first question is whether Jefferson, the oldest school in the system, will become the property of the county.

The Board of Supervisors is reluctant to take responsibility for another vacant building, for which it would have to provide upkeep or watch fall apart. But Asbury made it clear at Thursday night's School Board meeting that Jefferson would be turned over to the county this summer, not kept by the school system.

The one-story structure, with two partial lower levels, contains 17 classrooms and administrative, library, restroom and cafeteria space. It needs access for the handicapped, costing an estimated $2,000, if it is to be used.

The transition team has come up with the following possible uses for the building:

The Pulaski Head Start program now has classroom and office space in the basement of Jefferson. When it closes, these facilities must be relocated - unless the program could remain in the building, where it could be moved up to the main floor and expanded.

New River Community Action would like to be considered as an additional tenant, along with Head Start. It is now leasing space privately.

Adult education classes, now offered in county churches, would find Jefferson a good site for an adult education center. It could house a General Educational Development testing center for the growing number of adults who did not graduate from high school and want a GED.

It also could serve the school system's new External Diploma Program for adults, planned for the start of 1994, offering the equivalent of a high school diploma based on life skills and outside assignments rather than the traditional classroom. The Dublin Methodist Church is being considered as a site, but Jefferson could be an alternative if it becomes an adult education center.

Service America, vendor for the Area Agency on Aging meal service, now operates out of the old Belspring School in space rented from the county. So does the Parrott/Belspring Recreation Department. If Service America moved to Jefferson, the recreation department could use the other building rent-free in return for custodial and upkeep work.

Organizers for a county Straight Street Teen Center are still looking for a location.

The Pulaski County Chamber of Commerce, now in the Pulaski town building, is slated to move into the town's Train Station building once it is renovated. Jefferson would offer more space.

A community-based temporary emergency shelter, planned for up to four boys and four girls in crisis, with house parents, could be housed at Jefferson.

The county Community Relations Office, now in the old agriculture building on 4th Street, includes the county Office on Youth, Clean Community Council and Recreation Commission. It could use more room.