Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 25, 1995 TAG: 9503270033
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
But School Board Chairman Guy Gentry suggests that pupils will be the losers if the city doesn't move forward with a long list of school expansion and renovation projects. The schools also want the latest technology so students can surf the Internet and have access to other information resources.
"We're going to have to curtail services to our students if we can't do these things," Gentry told his colleagues Thursday.
So far, City Council has tentatively agreed to fund just one of the smaller projects on a $3.8 million wish list that includes additional elementary and intermediate school classrooms, new computer labs at all schools and expansion of elementary school library media centers.
Bids are due in mid-April to build new art and music classrooms this year at both elementary schools. The addition at Belle Heth Elementary School likely will be built with money left over from this year's budget on July 1, while a similar project at McHarg Elementary School will be built using money in the current budget.
School officials estimate that building both projects will cost up to $232,000.
At City Council's request, the board prioritized the rest of its project list Thursday, but reluctantly.
"I sort of resent having to prioritize these," said Board Member Chip Craig. "These are all essential. There's not a bit of fluff in this list."
However, the board agreed to put projects for more elementary and intermediate school classrooms at the top of its list. School officials say they need the space to make room for increasing enrollments.
The new computer labs also made the "A" list, as did the media center expansions and dining rooms at both elementary schools.
A proposal for extensive renovations to the east wing at Radford High School, put at $800,000, slipped several rungs as the need for additional space continued to surface.
"At least we have an east wing," Craig remarked, trying to put the low ranking into perspective.
The board's priority list totaled nearly $2.4 million. It goes to City Council, which takes up the budget Thursday.
For the 1995-96 school year, the board has asked the city for approximately $1.8 million more than it got this year, much of that for new school projects, for average 3.9 percent salary increases and for new computers and other technology. But, council has indicated it plans to give the schools only enough to cover 3 percent pay raises and a 0.5 percent increase in the rest of the budget from current levels.
To give council a clearer picture of its budget request, the board plans to break out the capital projects from other spending requests to indicate items the city might want to fund by a bond issue still in the planning stages.
Radford Education Association President Betty Whitley and other teachers said after the meeting that the art and music classroom projects won't alleviate the elementary schools' space crunch. Additional classrooms are critical at both schools, Whitley said, where teachers share cramped classroom quarters, and some classes meet in hallways.
by CNB