Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 16, 1994 TAG: 9411160155
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: VIRGINIA EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The mayor called that idea "preposterous" and said he never would advocate such a large school.
Three high schools - one of them a joint operation between the city and county - would be preferable to one, he said.
"It's conceivable that there could be a third high school, to complement'' Patrick Henry and Cave Spring, the mayor said Tuesday.
The controversy arose over a Nov. 7 letter to City Council that was made public at council's meeting Monday. Without comment, council unanimously approved forwarding it to the chairmen of the city Planning Commission and the city School Board.
The letter never specifically mentions closing both high schools and consolidating them. But Roanoke County School Board Chairman Frank Thomas said that was the impression it left him with.
"I don't think there was anything about a third school in the letter, was [there]?" Thomas asked.
In it, Bowers suggested the two boards get together with their counterparts in the county to discuss "future joint needs and aspirations" in a spirit of regional cooperation.
"I was trying to do something very positive. I was saying, `If the Board of Supervisors and the City Council can get together for discussion, so can the planning commissions and school boards,''' Bowers said Tuesday.
In the letter, Bowers elaborated on the need for cooperation between the school systems. Patrick Henry is more than 30 years old, and it has been suggested that the city School Board begin planning a new high school in the city's southwest quadrant, he wrote.
He also noted overcrowding problems in Southwest County schools, and the county's unwillingness to take on new debt to finance construction of a new high school.
"Wouldn't it be grand for the city and county to join together to build a new joint city/county high school for the southwest portion of our area?" the mayor wrote. "Now that is progress, and would be very cost-efficient for both communities in a valley where we have three courthouses, two jails, two civic centers, et cetera," the mayor wrote.
But school administrators quickly pointed out that a consolidated school would require space for 4,000 students, making it the largest in the state by far and difficult to run because of its size.
The mayor also on Tuesday raised the possibility that the county's Hidden Valley Junior High might be used as a joint city-county high school, rather than building a new one.
Thomas said the county is forming a 30-member committee that will spend two to three years studying school needs and uses in the south part of the county.
Until that panel comes back with a report and recommendations, discussions with the city school board would be pointless, Thomas said.
As to the underutilization of Hidden Valley, "I don't think that would be a true and accurate statement," Thomas said. The junior high school is now at 85 percent to 90 percent of capacity, and "probably there's something going on there every night," Thomas said.
Turning it into a high school is a "remote possibility," because of the building's layout, the number of classrooms and the relatively small size of its gym.
"There would have to be a great deal of addition and renovation to it," Thomas said.
Roanoke Education Association Executive Director Gary Waldo said none of the prospects raised by Bowers, either in his letter or later comments, makes sense.
Students would suffer academically at a huge school. Major renovations at both Cave Spring and Patrick Henry would do away with the need for a third, joint school. Hidden Valley is not big enough to accommodate a high school, and parents of students there are very happy, Waldo said.
On the other hand, "the good side of what Bowers is trying to do is he's trying to stimulate discussion and cooperation. The more regional discussion and cooperation, the better," Waldo said.
by CNB