Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 7, 1994 TAG: 9404070327
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-13 CURRENT EDITION: NEW RIVER
SOURCE: By MARA LEE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Several Catawba parents, who have spoken out throughout the last two months, on Tuesday again expressed their dissatisfaction with the way administration will ease overcrowding at the town's elementary schools.
Carol Stone, who has three children, two of them in Blacksburg schools, said, "The redistricting plan for the Blacksburg Area Elementary Schools has been approved by the School Board, intentionally developed with only a minimum of public input and was approved to avoid inconvenience without proper consideration of public complaints. The plan is detrimental to the safety and quality of life of my children living in the Catawba Valley."
An anonymous parent-teacher committee from the town's four elementary schools met from October to January to decide how to fill a new school and redistribute children throughout the area.
Ray Van Dyke, principal of the new school, who headed the committee, presented its proposal to the School Board on Feb.1. A series of four public hearings, most lightly attended, followed.
The committee made no changes in its plan, which the board unanimously approved at the beginning of March.
Catawba residents complain that their 26 children, who currently go to Harding Avenue Elementary, will have to go nearly two miles more to Margaret Beeks. While opponents say that Catawba will be split off from its rural neighbors and its connection to town, the main concerns expressed have been about bus routes. The routes will be decided in June.
Catawba children now travel down the winding Catawba Road, which changes to Harding Avenue in the town limits. Parents find the idea of traveling past Harding absurd, but strongly opposethe use of Nellies Cave Road, which they say is more dangerous still.
Dan Brugh, resident engineer for the Virginia Department of Transportation, said Nellies Cave is safer than Catawba road.
Nellies Cave was recently extended by a mile and a quarter, leaving only one-quarter mile built 30 or 40 years ago. Of that section, only 300-400 feet is so narrow that it's substandard, Brugh said.
"I will not say that," he said of their request for him to say Nellies Cave is unsafe for school bus traffic. "Probably at least 70 percent of the secondary system in Montgomery County" is substandard, he said. Including Catawba Road.
In the last five years, there have been no reported accidents on Nellies Cave. There have been on Catawba. Two Blacksburg residents died in an accident in Roanoke County on Catawba Road last week.
Catawba parents on Tuesday asked for a forum with the School Board. The board refused, saying it would set a dangerous precedent for special interest groups.
"What I've heard is a restatement of the issues that already have been raised," Vice Chairman Bob Goncz said.
Board member Don Lacy said, "There are several things that are disturbing, but put them in perspective for a moment. How adequate was that process? I'm beginning to question it in my own mind. It worked well in Christiansburg, has not worked as well perhaps in Blacksburg."
Annette Perkins, who represents Catawba, asked that the board revisit the issue at the next meeting. She was the only member in a consensus head shake to vote to reconsider.
After the meeting, parents collared the superintendent and board members. Parent Nick Stone said, "Somebody had to decide whose community is more important than whose. Every person with a child should have an equal voice."
Stone said those protesting the redistricting could keep their children at Harding and balance the numbers if they had the committee's database, which included disabilities, economic status, race, age and addresses of all the children in the Blacksburg area. But much of that information is protected by the Family Privacy Act .
Parents at the meeting estimated there are 11 families with elementary-age children in the valley, with two in favor of the move.
Catawba parents admitted that fliers had been sent home, and that newspapers had publicized public meetings. Carol Stone said, "So many [fliers] come home and there are so many issues that are important."
by CNB