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

DATE: THURSDAY, October 19, 1995                   TAG: 9510190027
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

SHAWSVILLE TO SCHOOL BOARD: KEEP US AS A PRIORITY|

The residents attended the School Board's Tuesday night meeting to support a proposal from their board representative, Mary Beth Dunkenberger.

Dunkenberger, who covers District C, wanted the School Board to make the new Shawsville High School the second priority for school construction - above a new Blacksburg Middle School.

Other board members put her fears to rest, though, saying that despite appearances, an order for building the schools has not yet been set. And they voted to table setting any priorities, possibly until after the board is sure of how it will fund the projects.

In January, the School Board approved a plan to build four new schools in the next five years to alleviate overcrowding. The projects include a new Shawsville High School and Blacksburg Middle School, a new elementary school in Riner and a new Christiansburg Middle School.

The perception - that Blacksburg will have its new school under construction first - developed in part because of two recent actions by the site-selection committee and the Board of Supervisors.

The selection committee, which includes School Board Chairman Roy Vickers and Vice Chairman Barry Worth and Supervisors Jim Moore and Henry Jablonski, began its project by finding a site for the new Riner Elementary School.

Members started with Riner, Worth explained Tuesday, because the Board of Supervisors decided to pursue a Virginia Public School Authority bond that would cover construction costs to relieve the severely overcrowded school.

The other three schools - Christiansburg Middle, Blacksburg Middle and Shawsville High - would be considered as a package to be paid for by a bond referendum that voters would consider next fall.

To simplify the selection process, Worth said, the committee developed an unofficial time line to show how all four schools could be built in the proposed five-year span.

"We were trying to appease the Board [of Supervisors] so they felt like they had enough information to agree to a bond next year," Worth explained.

The time line shows the Blacksburg Middle school project beginning a few months after the Riner project. New construction for the Shawsville High school would not begin until about a year after that. Christiansburg Middle would be the last to begin and would be open for students in January 2001.

"In hindsight, I never would have agreed to drawing that up because it looks like we have set priorities when we really haven't," Worth said.

A proposal introduced by Supervisor Joe Gorman reinforced the perception for some Shawsville residents that the order of school construction was set in stone.

Rather than build a new Blacksburg Middle School, as the Facility Use-Space Study recommended, Gorman asked the School Board to examine renovation possibilities for the current school.

A presentation of that idea will be held Monday night for the Blacksburg community to consider.

"Priorities have been made," Dunkenberger said. "We've read a lot in the newspaper about what's going on in Blacksburg and voters out there have already developed perceptions about what they're going to vote on next year."

School Superintendent Herman Bartlett reminded the board that the original facilities committee, which included community members from the four school strands, decided that the new schools should be considered as a group.

"I'm nervous about splitting these up and having one community vying against another for priority," he said. "When we get the referendum passed, there will be plenty of time to decide to prioritize construction, or build them all at one time."

Members agreed to meet early next year and decide how to present the three-school plan to the supervisors and the public.

The Shawsville residents who went to the meeting - many of them members of the Parent Teacher Student Association - said they were pleased with the board's explanation.

"I think we won," PTSA secretary Nancy Nester said. "We've been heard and that was the important thing."

Melinda Smith, president of the PTSA, said the group would address their concerns to the Board of Supervisors if necessary.

"We'll be tenacious," she said.