Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 24, 1993 TAG: 9308240435
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: FINCASTLE LENGTH: Medium
The middle-school plan has become the focus of controversy in recent months. Some critics have said it would create yet another division between north and south in the county - and children in the less-affluent northern part of Botetourt would get the bad end of the bargain.
The Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 to go forward with building the $8-million-plus school, along with spending an estimated $1.3 million to give Botetourt Intermediate School a facelift.
Supervisors Webster Booze, Robert Layman, William Loope and Wendy Wingo voted for the plan. Supervisor G.C. Thompson, who has raised questions about the school, abstained.
Backers of the Cloverdale middle school say it will help prevent classroom crowding by allowing the county to shift sixth-graders from elementary schools into middle schools.
Under the plan, sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders from the southern part of the county would attend the new school; those in the northern portion would attend an expanded Botetourt Intermediate.
The board had not planned to vote on the middle-school plan during Monday's meeting.
In August, it had voted 3-1 to tell School Superintendent Clarence McClure to go forward with planning for the middle school.
But the supervisors also had instructed McClure to come back for guidance on the school plan, and that prompted some citizens to believe the board would make a yea-or-nay decision on Monday.
When the supervisors took no action after hearing McClure's report Monday, some citizens - both supporters and opponents of the middle school - complained.
"You're told one thing - and then you come to the meeting and they don't even do what they said they were going to do," said Deborah Carter, a county parent who opposes the middle-school plan.
Later, at the end of the meeting, Wingo said the board should clear up any confusion about where it stood. She made a motion for a vote, and the board went on record telling school officials to keep planning for the middle school.
by CNB