Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 28, 1994 TAG: 9406300074
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Introducing a newly completed school space study Monday to the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors, School Superintendent Herman Bartlett said the 14 options to upgrade the schools are not set in stone.
The supervisors took no action on the study, but peppered school representatives with questions about the assumptions that went into it. One member also suggested the study may have wasted money by duplicating research into growth patterns done as part of a recent water and sewer review.
The supervisors also approved the purchase of three acres of land in the Elliston-Lafayette Industrial Park by South Star Corp., a Salem-based electrical assembly company. The $22,500 purchase is to be announced at a press conference today.
The Board of Supervisors appointed Richard C. Edwards to replace Virginia Kennedy in District F on the School Board. The supervisors selected him from among six candidates.
Edwards, 56, is a retired Army colonel who works in property management for Raines Real Estate Inc. in Blacksburg.
The space study, completed by a Roanoke architectural and engineering firm, estimated it would cost between $69 million and $100 million to bring the county's 19 schools up to modern educational standards and to handle growth anticipated by 2002 in the Blacksburg, Christiansburg and Riner areas.
Under questioning from Supervisor Jim Moore, however, school officials conceded that those estimates were prepared with a student-teacher ratio of 25-to-1, not the 20-to-1 standard the School Board last week adopted as a long-term goal.
Bartlett said that, as ratios drop, cost increases. The 20 percent figure is probably close to the ultimate increase, he said.
The School Board got its first look at the voluminous study last week. This week, Bartlett, other school officials and Kinsey, Shane and Associates representatives started the process of introducing it to the governing bodies that may be asked to start paying for parts of it in the fall. School officials stressed that the cost estimates are preliminary.
Moore also suggested the duplication of effort on a map of planned new subdivisions.
Supervisor Joe Gorman asked why the study was not coordinated with the Focus 2006 long-range planning effort.
School officials said the study was based on a 1992 demographic survey of the county and areas predicted for growth. Some elements of the wide-ranging 2006 study were incorporated into the suggestions to upgrade schools in the four corners of the county.
by CNB