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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 18, 1993                   TAG: 9308180179
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FINCASTLE                                LENGTH: Medium

ADVISERS PUSH MIDDLE SCHOOL FOR BOTETOURT

A consultants' report recommends that Botetourt County go ahead with plans to build a new middle school in the southern part of the county.

The idea has come under fire in recent months from some residents who say it will be too costly and will create a harmful division between northern and southern Botetourt.

In the spring, the Board of Supervisors asked Municipal Advisors Inc. of Virginia Beach to compare the middle-school plan with other proposals for revamping the school system.

The consultants say they favor the middle-school plan because it would:

Provide the best long-term solution to increasing enrollment in fast-growing southern Botetourt.

Reduce the length of time most children spend riding buses to school.

Allow the county to group sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders together, a setup that is recommended by state education officials.

Supervisors Chairman Robert Layman, who has been called a possible swing vote on the issue, said the report provides the impetus for the county to move forward. "The consultants clearly say that's the best way to go," Layman said. "I think that's the only thing to do."

Botetourt Intermediate School has been serving all seventh- and eighth-graders in the county. The consultants say the middle-school plan would head off crowding at elementary schools by allowing them to shift sixth-graders to the new school.

The school would open in Cloverdale in the fall of 1995. In addition, Botetourt Intermediate would begin taking sixth-graders from northern Botetourt.

Estimates are that the middle school would cost slightly more than $8 million. Another $1.3 million would be needed to upgrade Botetourt Intermediate.

The consultants rejected five other proposals for revamping the schools. They said, for example, that a plan to build a central high school and convert James River and Lord Botetourt high schools to middle schools would cost too much - more than $20 million - and would leave Botetourt Intermediate empty.

by CNB