
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 19, 1994                   TAG: 9407150012
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: TOM KEGLEY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

RINER AREA'S RAPID GROWTH OVERCROWDING SCHOOLS

The Montgomery County School Board and the Board of Supervisors need to address the chronic problems of crowded classrooms and outdated facilities at Bethel and Riner elementary schools and Auburn High and Middle School.

As farms in the Riner area are sold and subdivided, more and more homes are built. Development along the Route 177 corridor is under way. The new Radford Hospital and other economic development will assure more residential growth in the Bethel and Childress area. What was considered steady growth a little over a year ago is now becoming a flood.

Bethel Elementary is the most crowded school in Montgomery County. In February 1993, a report prepared for the School Board projected the 1993/94 enrollment of Riner Elementary at 276 students. Actual enrollment is now 292. Building capacity at the school is 273.

Auburn High School is nearly 60 years old - crowded and outdated for teaching in the '90s. At the present rate, Auburn High and Middle School will soon be encircled by mobile classrooms.

The 1993 report recommends meeting the classroom needs of the Riner/Bethel areas. It also recommends space changes to old secondary schools to bring them up to date with contemporary education requirements. All schools in the Riner area fall into these categories of recommendations.

The 1993 Capital Improvements Program for Montgomery County Schools recommends the purchase of land for a new elementary school for Riner in the 1995-1996 school year with the school to open in the fall of1997. This would relieve our crowded elementary schools, open the possibility for a badly needed self-contained middle school and provide opportunities for space relief at our high school.

I would like to suggest that the superintendent and the School Board update the 1993 report. It could not and did not foresee the rapid pace of growth in the Riner area. Therefore, most of its projections are underestimated.

The facts are evident. Don't wait for a crisis to become a disaster. The parents and students of Bethel, Riner and Auburn are anxiously waiting for your response to our requests for help and action.

Tom Kegley is a Christiansburg resident.

by CNB