Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 8, 1994 TAG: 9404080180
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Carver was a new school and it offered black children in Roanoke County the first opportunity to get a high school diploma.
"Coming to [Carver] was a great excitement for me. It may be difficult for others to understand the feeling I had," he said. Dowe had been attending the Roanoke County Training School for black children, but it did not offer a diploma.
The training school also lacked many conveniences that were present in schools for white children. It had outdoor toilets.
Dowe was in the fifth grade when he enrolled at Carver, which served grades one through 12 for black children for nearly three decades.
Carver was part of the Roanoke County school system until 1983, when Salem formed it own school system.
Dowe graduated from Carver in 1947 and went on to become a teacher and principal at Roanoke's Lincoln Terrace Elementary School for 22 years.
Carver instilled a feeling of pride and family among its hundreds of black students, Dowe said.
Thursday night, he appealed to the Salem School Board to renovate the 54-year-old school instead of razing it and constructing a new building.
Carver is more than just a building, he said. It is part of the heritage and history for many African Americans in Salem and throughout the Roanoke Valley.
A half-dozen other black leaders and educators joined Dowe in urging the School Board to save Carver. About 75 people attended a public hearing Thursday on the issue and applauded when one speaker urged that the school be renovated.
When Roanoke County schools were integrated in 1966, black students began attending Andrew Lewis High School. Then Carver became an intermediate school and an elementary school after Salem established its own school system.
School officials say a new or renovated school is needed because the building is old and has several deficiencies, including classrooms that are too small by state standards.
The school at Fourth and Broad streets serves 400 children, but officials say the capacity needs to be expanded to 600 to accommodate growth in North Salem.
Architects have told the board that the cost for renovating and expanding the school would be about the same as constructing a new building - about $5.5 million.
If the school is renovated, school officials must plan for educating the children during the renovations.
Board member Walter Franke said he will vote to renovate and expand the school, but other members have not said how they will vote.
Besides Dowe, the Carver school has produced several well-known black educators and leaders in the Roanoke Valley.
Roanoke School Superintendent Wayne Harris is a graduate of Carver, as is Joseph Kyle, director of testing and federal programs for Roanoke County schools.
Roland Malone, a former teacher and basketball coach at Carver, also was a coach in Roanoke County.
Both Kyle and Malone appealed to the board to save the school because of its heritage and significance for blacks.
Kyle entered the first grade when Carver opened in 1940. He graduated in 1952, then returned five years later to become a teacher. He later served as an assistant principal there until 1966, when the schools were integrated.
"Whatever your decision," Kyle said, "the name - G.W. Carver - must be retained." George Washington Carver was a famous black scientist and humanitarian.
Black children need to know they have a heritage, Kyle said.
Malone urged the board to be sensitive to the feelings of African Americans. Noting that Salem has excellent athletic facilities, he said the city can afford to renovate and preserve the school if it has the desire.
The Rev. Enos Glaspie asked the board to try to understand the school's significance for African Americans.
"Just try to stand in our shoes, feel what we feel, understand what it means to us," Glaspie.
The Salem Historical Society also urged that the building be saved and used for something else if it is not renovated for school use.
One speaker urged the construction of a new building at another site. Sherry Siska, who has a child at the school, said she is worried that students might be endangered if the building is renovated and expanded while they are there.
Siska urged the board not to base its decision on emotions and sentimental attachments.
But Dowe said the school holds more than just sentiment for the hundreds who were educated there:
"With adequate renovations, Carver can become a showcase for the Roanoke Valley and the state."
by CNB