Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 2, 1995 TAG: 9509050027
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CLOVERDALE LENGTH: Long
It has become almost a fall ritual at Botetourt County's fastest-growing elementary school.
"Our numbers just keep adding," she said. "They never go down."
This year, Cloverdale Elementary is expecting 465 pupils. That's up from 387 just two years ago.
Botetourt School Superintendent Clarence McClure says the space situation will not get better in the foreseeable future.
"We'll have to use mobile units until we get a new elementary school built," he said. "It's going to look like trailer city out here."
McClure wants to propose to the School Board that the county start planning a new $6.2 million Daleville Elementary School nearly two years ahead of schedule.
McClure also hopes to push ahead a $4 million construction project - eight new classrooms and air conditioning - at Lord Botetourt High School to accommodate anticipated growth.
McClure hopes to break ground on both projects late next year.
County officials had hoped that construction of new middle schools at Cloverdale and Fincastle would ease overcrowding in the elementary schools. Next year, sixth-graders will move from the elementary schools into the middle schools.
But the superintendent says student population growth in the lower grades already has filled the void that would be left by the exiting sixth-graders.
Cloverdale Elementary was renovated three years ago, but not enough classrooms were added.
"To me, that is poor planning," supervisors' Chairman Bob Layman said. "Somebody needs a new crystal ball."
Layman said it's too late to go back and correct errors. He said a new elementary school is inevitable now.
"The way I see the south end of the county growing, I would say we need a groundbreaking in 1996," he said.
Cloverdale is the starkest example of the space woes, with a 20 percent growth rate in two years. Overall, the county elementary schools have grown 5.6 percent since 1993.
McClure said elementary schools at Fincastle, Blue Ridge, Troutville and Cloverdale already are at more than 90 percent of capacity. Educators try to keep the schools less than 90 percent full to keep student-teacher ratios low.
A good example is the situation facing this year's third-grade classes at Cloverdale. Although the pupil-teacher ratio is above the 25-1 specified by the School Board, no adjustment could be made. The school was out of space.
As it is, Wickersham was forced to order two mobile classrooms a week before school opened to accommodate additional classes. Foundations were built, and the trailers were wired, cleaned and inspected at the same time that teachers gathered for their last-minute preparations for the school year.
"We were so glad to get the extra space that everybody took it in stride," she said.
Each grade at Cloverdale - kindergarten through sixth grade - had two sections just two years ago. Now, three sections are required for each grade, Wickersham said.
While the Cloverdale space crunch is acute, McClure said all schools are feeling the pinch of Botetourt's growth.
"There is growth all over the county," the superintendent said.
With that in mind, McClure said the new elementary school would give the county the optimum working situation.
By redrawing attendance areas, the county could pull students into Daleville and ease space demands on the other elementary schools in southern Botetourt, where most of the county's residents live.
Rod Dillman, assistant superintendent of schools, uses a map containing colored pins representing students to make that point.
The map is rich in color in Blue Ridge, Troutville and Cloverdale. The northern end of the county around Eagle Rock has only an occasional colored dot.
Dillman said construction of the new elementary school should meet the county's needs for the next decade.
"Unless Motorola comes to the county, we should be set for the next 10 years," he said.
The supervisors laid the groundwork for the new elementary school this summer after spending $4.5 million for 922 acres along U.S. 220 for a multiuse park that includes a school site. That land, on the old Greenfield plantation, also would have a recreation area and industrial park under the county's plan.
McClure's proposal to move up the construction schedule may cause the supervisors to dig into the county's pockets again. Planning for the new elementary school and Lord Botetourt renovations are expected to cost between $150,000 and $200,000.
That planning is crucial in the county's bid to get low-cost financing from the state, McClure said. The county could borrow the money from the Virginia Public School Authority in the short term and then pay off that loan with money obtained from the school literary fund, he said.
McClure said it takes about three years to obtain literary fund loans, which pay for school projects on a first-come, first-served basis. Plans for the school must be completed before an application can be made.
Layman said the supervisors are aware that a new school is needed.
"The schools are packed," he said. "That's something we can't hold back on."
by CNB