Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 28, 1993 TAG: 9310280372
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Some 75 parents and teachers came to a Tuesday meeting hosted by Ray E. Van Dyke, principal of the yet-to-be-named school. They peppered Van Dyke and other school officials with questions about the new school, including how the new boundaries will be drawn.
If recent history is any guide, the process will receive increasing scrutiny this winter and spring. In 1989, Blacksburg parents complained loud enough to prompt the Montgomery School Board to shelve a redistricting plan in lieu of using more portable classrooms until two new elementary schools could be built.
The first, Falling Branch Elementary in Christiansburg, is open.
The new school, adjacent to Hethwood and west of Virginia Tech, will have 450-475 students when it opens next fall, Van Dyke said. Its population will be drawn from all four Blacksburg-area elementaries, with the goal being to keep each school's enrollment about 15 percent below effective capacity, he said.
That means Gilbert Linkous Elementary, located on Toms Creek Road within site of Tech, could lose some 230 pupils, or nearly 36 percent of its current enrollment. Harding could lose 66 pupils, or 18 percent of its current total. Margaret Beeks could lose 71 pupils, or 14 percent of its total. Nearly a quarter of Prices Fork pupils, some 68, could be reassigned.
Those numbers are preliminary, Van Dyke said. The attendance-lines committee, formed by Van Dyke from list names submitted by the principals of the current schools, will refine them and submit its recommendations to the School Board and superintendent by Jan. 15. The School Board will have the final say.
Van Dyke said he chose not to open the committee to anyone who wanted to serve, though he said he would consider new requests on an individual basis. And, in response to a question, Van Dyke said he had mixed feelings about surveying parents as the committee goes about its work. He said he didn't want parents to flat out reject having their children move to another school.
``I think it's important that we keep it as neutral as possible,`` he said.
Besides looking at building capacities, the committee will attempt to reflect ``the diversity of the community'' and try to keep each child in the school closest to his home, Van Dyke said. Diversity means reflecting the socioeconomic status of all neighborhoods surrounding schools and making sure one school doesn't have a majority of the foreign-born students.
At Gilbert Linkous, for instance, 150 of its 630 students were born in another country.
Van Dyke also said he could squelch several rumors about the new school, including:
There will be no busing considered.
The reassignment of teachers cannot begin until the attendance lines and school populations are set.
There are no plans to close Prices Fork Elementary, located just a few miles west of the new school. Current long-range plans call for the purchase of more land near that school for expansion.
by CNB