Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 18, 1994 TAG: 9408180111
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
How about the tutoring center? It's in the custodian's closet.
Those are just a few of the measures that the Franklin County School Board has taken to alleviate overcrowding.
To get students into real classroom space, the county Board of Supervisors agreed 6-0 Wednesday to hold a public referendum for a $14.7-million bond package to improve county schools.
The county has until Sept. 8 to apply to the Circuit Court to have the referendum included on ballots for the Nov. 8 election.
Franklin County Superintendent of Schools Leonard Gereau said, "We've used just about every available space," adding that at Sontag and Ferrum elementary schools, cafeterias are used to hold classes. "Every one of these facilities is bursting at the seams."
To keep up with increases in population, the school board drafted the $14.7-million plan with the help of the state Department of Education. If voters go for it, the plan would result in new construction at every elementary school in the county and would create a $6.5-million technology magnet school.
The magnet school, which would offer courses in everything from electronics to robotics, would take 250 students out of Franklin county's middle school. It would take another 250 students, primarily ninth-graders, from the high school.
Gereau tried unsuccessfully to get board members to consider the funding outside of a referendum. He said a vote would only prolong the process of obtaining much-needed funds for the schools.
He asked the board to consider immediate funding for school-site selections and architectural planning. The superintendent told the school that the school board hoped to reimburse the county government through a special school-loan program available from the state Department of Education.
Called literary fund loans, the money would provide up to $5 million for individual schools at 3-percent interest. The loans have a three-year waiting list.
County Administrator Macon Sammons Jr. agreed that it was a good idea to pay for the bonds with lower-cost literary fund loans. He said that if the county tried to take on the $14.7-million debt at once, it would mean as much as another 10-cent increase in real-estate taxes.
The board agreed instead to seek bonds for the whole program from voters, but only use as much as necessary until other funding becomes available.
In other business, the board agreed to hold a public hearing about an ordinance to start staggered elections in the county. The hearing will be held at the next Board of Supervisors meeting in September.
Board members, who are up for re-election in November 1995, are all currently elected at the same time. If the ordinance is passed, the board members would be elected in two-year cycles.
by CNB