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

DATE: TUESDAY, October 17, 1995                   TAG: 9510170059
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CAVE SPRING HIGH

IN THE consensus-building stage of the school-building process in Southwest Roanoke County, public opinion may be shifting toward a plan that would cost more up front, but be cheaper to live with: a new, 1,900-student Cave Spring High School.

But county school administrators should look carefully at the educational advantages of two, smaller schools before deciding which plan to push forward.

Building one large high school and converting the existing school to a middle school would cost close to $37 million, as opposed to costs ranging from about $32 million to $33.4 million to build two smaller schools and make middle-school improvements. But the larger school would cost $1.7 million less per year to operate.

Such a difference, year after year, would quickly pay for the higher building costs, and eventually amount to a tidy savings for county taxpayers - a persuasive point, it seems, for most of the interested citizens attending a recent meeting to study options.

Current high-school students seemed to favor the large school, too. Most will have graduated by the time a new school can be built, even under the most accelerated schedule. But their priorities likely would be shared by students coming up through the system: having more college-prep courses to choose from, staying with friends, preserving a sense of community in Southwest County, competing with AAA schools in athletics.

The athletic-division issue aside, these concerns deserve consideration.

With all these sound reasons for a single high school, there remains one strong argument for continuing to give thought to building two. It has to do with the source of the annual savings with a large school.

The greatest part - fully $1.1 million of the anticipated $1.7 million less in operating costs - would be realized by having a smaller teaching staff. Not taken into account, meanwhile, is the value, educationally, of a smaller setting where teachers can better get to know and understand their students.

Some students will shine no matter how large the school they attend, and some will need and receive extra attention. But many who are somewhere in the middle can be lost in large schools. That, too, should figure into the county's equations.

by CNB