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

DATE: SATURDAY, June 5, 1993                   TAG: 9306050702
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium

JEFFERSON SCHOOL FAREWELL SUNDAY AFTERNOON

The building will be closed as a school at the end of the 1992-93 year, but is being considered for a variety of other uses.

Principal Michael Amstein will give a welcoming address to those attending the "closing ceremonies." Past principals as well as some of the school's past teachers will be honored.

A history of the school, originally compiled for its 50th anniversary and updated since then, will be read.

One of the highlights of the gathering will be the opening of the building's cornerstone.

The box was first opened and examined nine years ago, when the school's 60th anniversary was celebrated. New items, including a newspaper with an article on the anniversary and a photo of the school's faculty at that time, were put into the box and it was replaced in the cornerstone.

That will happen again, with such items as a new faculty picture and the updated history being added, but this time the box will go to a museum housed in the basement of the Town of Pulaski's municipal building.

A few other items from the school will also go to the museum.

Jefferson has about 230 pupils. Those who would have attended the school next year will be redistributed to Critzer, Claremont and Northwood elementary schools.

Meanwhile, a transition team will be meeting to recommend new uses for the former school building.

Suggestions have included housing Head Start facilities, New River Community Action offices, the vendor for the meal services to the elderly, a teen center, the Pulaski County Chamber of Commerce, an emergency shelter agency serving young people, the county Community Relations Office, or a center for adult education classes.

Jefferson is the oldest school in the county, and efforts are under way to find out if it might be the oldest in the state as well.

The decision to close it after this year stemmed from the school system's loss of about 100 students per year and a need to reduce the number of its buildings.