Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 30, 1995 TAG: 9505010054
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
They're lucky.
The Roanoke County school is on U.S. 221 near its intersection with Twelve O'Clock Knob Road. The racers will come down Twelve O'Clock Knob during Monday's time trial.
Back Creek pupils will get out of class and cross the highway to watch the cyclists.
A few other Roanoke Valley schools are close enough to the course that the children can see the race.
In Roanoke, students at James Madison Middle School can sit on a hill beside their building and watch the bikers speed by on Brambleton Avenue.
Teachers and pupils at the nearby Fishburn Park Elementary School will be allowed to walk to Brambleton and watch the time trial for an hour.
In Salem, it's a convenient walk from Andrew Lewis Middle School to the course.
But most of the Roanoke Valley's 30,000 schoolchildren will miss the race unless they stay out of school and watch it with their parents or friends.
The valley has 63 schools, but only half a dozen are near the 22.9-mile route for the time trial, which begins at 11 a.m. and ends about 2:30 p.m.
The event starts at the Salem Civic Center, winds over Twelve O'Clock Knob and Mount Chestnut in Southwest Roanoke County, and ends on the Roanoke City Market.
Schools will be in session as usual Monday. Closing the valley's schools for the day or part of the day so children could see the race would cause schedule and logistical problems, officials said, adding that there is no practical way to close schools and transport the children to the race course.
"If we had closed part of the day, we would have had to let the students out by 11 a.m. That would have been unacceptable from an educational viewpoint," said Richard Kelley, assistant superintendent for operations for Roanoke schools. Elementary schools would have been in session for only two hours, he said.
Tour DuPont organizers had hoped that more children would be along the route for the time trial.
"We would have liked several more schools to be involved, but they have to do their schedules so far in advance," said Brian Duncan, an executive board member of Cycle Roanoke Valley.
Not only will most Roanoke students miss the race, but they'll have to spend an additional 15 minutes in school Monday until the blocked streets are reopened about 2:30 p.m. That will be after the city's middle schools are supposed to dismiss for the day.
Roanoke's high schools and most elementary schools dismiss at 2:40. A few elementary schools end their day at 3:15.
Kelley said the bus schedules for middle, elementary and high schools are linked, so all schools must add 15 minutes to their day.
Some buses have to cross Brambleton Avenue in Southwest Roanoke, the route for the time trial.
Kelley said the school system must wait until all cyclists have cleared Brambleton before it can dismiss schools. "The problem is Brambleton, but, hopefully, it will reopen before 2:30," he said.
The time trial will not affect the bus schedules and dismissal times in Salem and Roanoke County.
by CNB