Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 14, 1995                   TAG: 9505150051
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SCHOOL RENOVATION JUST ISN'T WORKING OUT FOR EVERYONE

Superintendent Wayne Harris said Friday that the renovation of the school is designed to help prepare the students for the 21st century.

"We can't do that in the existing building," Harris said.

Some residents and groups are fighting the plan to raze the front part of the school. The residents plan to protest at the school Tuesday and collect signatures on petitions opposing the demolition. They plan to ask City Council to hold up bond funds for the project until the plans are revised.

Vice Mayor John Edwards wants the School Board to reconsider the plans and preserve the front part of the building.

Meanwhile, a leader of the Archaeological Society of Virginia is supporting the residents' attempt to block the demolition.

"We oppose the razing. There are a lot of questions about costs and other things that have been glossed over," said Joey Moldenhauer, chairman of the threatened sites committee for the archaeological group. He grew up in Southeast Roanoke and attended Jackson, and now lives in Salem.

"They ought to delay it for a year and revise the plans," he said. "It appears to be a sham."

Preserving the front of the 67-year-old structure would undermine the educational plan for the school, said Richard Kelley, assistant school superintendent for operations.

"To go back and revise the plans would defeat the whole purpose of what we are trying to do with the project," Kelley said. "We are trying to provide a new educational program for Jackson, not just cosmetics. We are trying to provide a new and modern middle school concept so that students can interact with computers and teachers."

If the old classrooms and hallways have to be preserved, he said, it would hamper the creation of new laboratories and rooms for computers and other educational technology.

Kelley believes the controversy over the plan to tear down and rebuild part of the school has been sparked in part by a lack of understanding of what the renovation project is designed to accomplish.

The school system will hold meetings at all the Southeast elementary schools and with a neighborhood group at Jackson in the next two weeks to explain the renovation plans.

The meetings will be held at Garden City Elementary School on May 23 at 2:15 p.m.; Fallon Park Elementary, May 30, 6:30 p.m.; and Morningside Elementary, May 31, 6:30 p.m.

The school system also is arranging a meeting with the Southeast Neighborhood Alliance to discuss the Jackson plans, but the date has not been set.

Harris said school officials will invite the most outspoken opponents of the demolition to attend the meetings, where parents and residents will have an opportunity to express their views.

"Our goal is to listen to all sides," Harris said." We are trying to do what is best for the students."

Kelley said, "We want to make sure that people understand the reason that we are doing what we are."

School officials also will answer questions about the transfer of students to other schools while Jackson is closed for a year for the renovation, Kelley said.

The School Board has awarded a $5.5 million contract for the project, and work is scheduled to begin in mid-June.