Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 28, 1994 TAG: 9402010007
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Medium
Better classrooms and more effective use of learning technology would be expensive, but could be funded through a $20 million bond issue if county voters approved it.
These scenarios were among those considered Thursday night during a task force meeting at Pulaski County High School. The date for the agreement on a final report was tentatively set for Feb. 15, after another round of task-force subcommittee meetings.
The report will go to a commission made up of members of the county School Board and Board of Supervisors, to be taken to those two bodies for consideration.
The commission appointed the 41-member task force several months ago to make recommendations in the areas of technology, demographics, finance and facilities to take the county school system into the next century.
One preliminary recommendation would be to close both Pulaski and Dublin middle schools and build a single middle school near Pulaski County High in the Dublin area.
The alternative would be to close only Pulaski Middle School and to renovate and expand Dublin Middle School.
Right now, the first option seems more favorably regarded. Construction of a new middle school would cost more - an estimated $5 million to $7 million to accommodate 700 to 1,000 students - but a new facility could better meet technological and vocational teaching needs.
It would be a separate facility from the high school, but it would be in the same general area to simplify school-bus routing.
The current thinking regarding elementary schools is to keep them all open, except possibly Northwood, depending on pupil-teacher ratios. If the county manages to lower the number of pupils in most classes, Northwood would be needed because the other Pulaski-area elementary schools - Claremont and Critzer - could not handle the load.
If Northwood is closed, the recommendation would be to add on to Critzer.
The task force thinks that it will be necessary to redistrict attendance areas for Dublin and Riverlawn elementary schools. Dublin is getting too many pupils, and Riverlawn not enough.
Another possibility would be to build a new elementary school near McAdam, close Snowville, Draper, Newbern and Northwood elementary schools, and do some renovation at Riverlawn.
But the preference seems to be keeping the small schools open rather than building a new one. With projections indicating that Pulaski County could lose 600 students in the next 20 years, the group saw little reason for building new schools.
The task force has looked at several possible sources of money for school needs.
Low-interest loans from the state Literary Fund would work, but some projects in other localities have been awaiting loan approval for as long as three years.
Local tax increases were considered. A 1-cent increase in the county real-estate tax rate would bring in $84,000 a year and, for the personal-property tax, $12,000 a year.
But the bond-issue referendum is preferred at this point, especially since the county's remaining $495,000 of debt for building Critzer and for its systemwide computer classes would be retired in 1994.
by CNB