Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 5, 1995 TAG: 9503060060
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BOONES MILL LENGTH: Long
Eight Ansel Adams photographs of farms, fields and trees are the only outside view students have in David Johnson's special-education class at Boones Mill Elementary School. That's because the classroom - actually a revamped book storage closet - has no windows.
Wooden shelves full of books line the walls. A center row of shelves was removed so a small table could be placed in the room to accommodate the teacher and his three- to five-student classes. By the door, a Macintosh computer rests on a desk.
Because there's no intercom in the closet, Johnson and his students must keep the door open to hear loudspeaker announcements or school bells in the hall.
"It's difficult," Johnson says. "The children I teach can be more active and can be easily distracted. Some have attention deficit disorders. You need to have spaces to place children, to give them a timeout when you have problems, and we're so tight, there's really no space."
In recent years, the rural counties around Roanoke have experienced an influx of new residents seeking lower property taxes, better quality of life, cheaper land prices and larger lots.
They also are bringing school-age children.
From 1980 to 1990, the number of families with school-age children in Bedford County grew almost 25 percent - from 4,989 families to 6,629. Over the same period, the number of families with children grew 12 percent in Montgomery County, more than 8 percent in Franklin County and more than 4 percent in Botetourt County.
The result: rising school enrollments - and overcrowding.
Franklin County: In only five years, enrollment at Boones Mill Elementary increased by more than 20 percent - from 266 pupils in 1989 to 321 this year. By 1998, its enrollment is expected to be 405.
Botetourt County: Right now, the county's only middle school, Botetourt Intermediate, has only seventh- and eighth-graders because there's no room for a sixth-grade class.
Four of Botetourt's seven elementary schools are at capacity and still growing.
At Cloverdale Elementary, the pupil population has risen from 285 pupils to 426 in the past 10 years. Even though the school will lose its 50-pupil sixth-grade class when a new middle school opens in 1996, its enrollment is projected to be 426 by 1998.
That's why, in Daleville, where new subdivisions quickly are replacing orchards and farms, a new elementary school probably will be built within a few years. A committee appointed by the School Board has been searching for sites, but is coming up with a major problem: Subdivision developers can pay more for the properties.
Bedford County: Enrollment in Bedford County schools has jumped by about 1,000 since 1990.
Staunton River High School's original classroom buildings, built in 1966, were designed to hold 650 students. A math/science building added in 1988 increased the capacity to 850 students. But enrollment was close to 1,100 this year.
Principal Robert Ashworth estimates the school could have 1,200 to 1,300 students in five years.
"Staunton River was too small the day it was constructed," Ashworth says.
Montgomery County: There are more than 200 pupils at Bethel Elementary School, which has a capacity of 174. Mobile classrooms - trailers - have been bought to relieve the overcrowding.
In Riner, where the county is seeing most of its growth, Riner Elementary has grown by 50 pupils in the past four years and now is 25 over capacity. Trailers are used at Riner, as well.
Overall, Montgomery County can expect a 1.3 percent growth rate in student population over the next five years. That equals approximately 600 new students.
No money for services
Schools are the most visible and expensive examples of how rural counties around Roanoke are pressed to provide services for a growing population. But new residents require a wide range of services, from building inspections to garbage collection, leaving counties constantly trying to catch up with the demands of growth.
"There's a very high level of expectation from the people who move to this area," says Debbie Kendall, a Bedford County community development planner. "A lot of them come from the North, and they're used to a certain level of services. They come down here and move to subdivisions and they want water and sewer and good schools and fire protection and police protection and all those things that go with it; and at the same time, they don't want to pay higher taxes.
"I don't know how many plats I've approved in the past month. It's incredible. And yet, it's all residential development, but there's no money to pay for the services required of that development."
Unless the county raises taxes.
Bedford County's real estate tax rose from 48 cents per $100 of assessed value in 1983 to 69 cents in 1989 because of growth in the schools and construction of a new landfill.
With schools swelling in size, the rural counties around Roanoke have first responded to overcrowding by improving their student-teacher ratios.
Bedford County hired 97 new teachers this school year, some because of promotions and turnover, but most because of growth. The total number of instructional personnel in Montgomery County has increased from 597 in 1991-92 to 650 this school year.
While other counties surrounding the Roanoke Valley haven't hired as many teachers, all are adding more each year to keep class sizes as small as possible.
Boones Mill Elementary added three new teachers this school year, making its pupil-teacher ratio about 21-to-1. But the problem with ratios is that they're an average.
In Boones Mill Elementary's two third-grade classes, 28 children are in one class and 29 in the other. There's no classroom space - or money for more teachers - to break it down. To keep their pupil-teacher ratios acceptable, some schools separate classrooms with portable walls, while others hold classes in gymnasiums or libraries.
At Staunton River High School, where the student-teacher ratio is about 19-to-1, classes are being held in the cafeteria, auditorium and band practice room. Six mobile trailers are used as classrooms. Special-education classes are held in storage areas and the teacher's lounge.
"I'm sorry we've got to have classes in the cafeteria but I'd rather have more teachers and deal with nontraditional classrooms," says Ashworth, the principal.
Avoiding mistakes of the past
Hiring more teachers doesn't solve all the problems brought on by the enrollment boom, though. Bedford, Botetourt, Franklin and Montgomery counties have been engaged in a flurry of school-building.
In many localities, residential growth is scattered instead of occurring in central areas where services can be provided easily and inexpensively. That means that, instead of adding to one school, governments are faced with expanding many. For example:
n Franklin County: Franklin County passed a $14.7 million bond referendum in November to add on to seven elementary schools and improve two others. The referendum also will pay for a new technology magnet school to alleviate overcrowding in the county's middle and high schools.
At Boones Mill Elementary, almost $1 million will be spent to build a library and two classrooms. Air conditioning will be added and the plumbing and electrical systems upgraded for the first time since the school was built in 1965.
Bedford County: Bedford County spent $8 million on construction and additions in 1993-94 and the current school year. The county expects to spend another $9 million for renovations, expansions and/or completions at five schools.
This year, a classroom building with 14 classes will be built at Staunton River High School. During the summer, the grass courtyards in the middle of the high school's two original classroom buildings will be enclosed and converted into more classrooms.
Staunton River's cafeteria, which is loaded beyond its 350-person capacity three times each day, will be converted into a library over the next two years and a bigger cafeteria built. The old library will be used for a clinic and extra office space.
"When these older schools were designed, there weren't any special-ed classes," Ashworth says. In the new plan, classroom space will be devoted to special education. "We tried not to make the same mistakes that were made time and time again in the past with building small. If you have to come back and build later, it costs more."
Botetourt County: Botetourt voters passed a $19.7 million bond referendum in November that included $13.6 million to build a middle school, the county's second, and to add to the existing middle school. This money doesn't address the need for a new elementary school in Daleville.
n Montgomery County: Montgomery County opened Kipps Elementary School in Blacksburg this past fall at a cost of $5 million. Falling Branch Elementary School, near Christiansburg, opened in September 1992, also at a cost of $5 million.
A study released in June said it would cost $69 million to $100 million to bring the 19-building school system up to modern standards, not counting land-acquisition costs. The oldest buildings in use date from the 1930s.
\ The problem with building more schools and educating more children is that residential development doesn't pay for the demands it makes on government. The cost of educating one child is far more than the tax revenue brought in from the household in which the child lives.
For example, Bedford County spent an average $4,175 per student in 1992-93 (not counting capital improvements to school buildings), according to the Virginia Department of Education. For the same year, the real estate tax on a $50,000 house would have been $310. Even a $200,000 house, bringing in $1,240 in real estate taxes, wouldn't come close to paying for just one child's education.
During the same time, Botetourt spent $4,287 per student, Franklin $4,325 and Montgomery $4,873 - well under the state average of $5,201 per student. Yet, it would have taken a $571,600 house in Botetourt, an $865,800 house in Franklin and a $696,000 house in Montgomery to raise enough tax money to pay for a single student's yearly education costs.
Even though some counties such as Bedford have raised tax rates in response to growth in the schools, a 10-cent increase translates into only another $200 for a $200,000 house - still far from closing the gap.
Some real estate developers disagree that residential development doesn't pay for itself. Blacksburg developer David Reemsnyder points out that commercial development and jobs often follow residential development, so residential development pays for itself through other means such as income and sales taxes.
"You don't have a commercial sector unless you've got people living" in a community, Reemsnyder says. If you take into account other tax revenues, "you might find that it isn't quite as damning on the residential sector."
Some county officials agree. Botetourt County Administrator Gerald Burgess says residential development brings in revenue through personal property taxes and various state taxes. When all those are considered, Burgess estimates it would take a $150,000 house to provide enough tax revenue to educate the occupants' children.
Yet the average assessed value of a home in Botetourt is about $70,000. Meanwhile, the residents, with their school-age children, keep coming.
They're aware they're in a closet
As available classroom space has become scarcer, it's usually been the smaller programs, such as David Johnson's special-education classes, that suffer.
At Boones Mill, a mop room with a sink and shelves full of cleaning chemicals was used for one-on-one tutoring, but the fumes were overwhelming. Now, tutors work with pupils at a table in the hallway across from the mop room.
Elsewhere, the school's talented and gifted program shares room with its guidance department in a closet that was once used to hold paper towels and toilet paper. The room has no heat, no ventilation, no climate control.
And taking all the closets for classes left another problem - lack of storage space. Last year, the school obtained its first electric heating system and abandoned its coal-burning furnace. The coal bin was painted and used to store school supplies, furniture and voting machines. "That was a boon, to find that," Tyler says.
With the bond money, the principal hopes to see a return to adequate teaching environments. But not until the construction is finished, probably sometime this summer or fall.
"It's hard when you see the [special-education] students in that small area," Tyler says. "It's frustrating because I think these children deserve the very best we can give them."
"I don't know a single person, myself included, who would want to keep a child in a closet all day," Johnson says.
Staff writers Melissa DeVaughn, Brian Kelley and Ron Brown contributed information to this story.
by CNB