Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 29, 1995 TAG: 9510310011
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
She's got her share of stretch marks, and she's bound to get more in the next few years.
She's not keeping up with the changes in technology as well as the younger folks are.
But there are people out there who don't want to put the old Blacksburg Middle School out to pasture just yet.
Thus, the school at the heart of town has been at the heart of debate in recent months as members of the Montgomery County School Board, then finally members of the Board of Supervisors, decide whether to give Blacksburg Middle a facelift or replace her with a younger model.
It's not a new problem, but that doesn't make dealing with it any easier.
As a community grows, its schools age and burst at the seams, and we have to make a choice: renovate or start anew.
Each choice has its benefits, each its drawbacks. That's certainly true in this case.
An added difficulty is that when it finally comes time for a community to make such choices, much of the developable land at the center of town - if not all of it - has been gobbled up. That means if we don't renovate in town, we'll have to build outside of it, moving the kids and possibly shops and a sense of community further away.
As someone who grew up during a time when strip malls were (and are) abandoned along our highways like broken toys, I worry about the hole Blacksburg Middle would leave if it left Main Street.
Board members are continuing to weigh all of the pros and cons, and they're accepting community input.
I urge you to give them yours.
But it's more than strong feelings that will decide the fate of the school, and if all signs point to a new one (as they have in committee discussion), I hope board members will take as much care - even more - deciding what to do with the old one.
Nearby Giles County serves as a good example when it comes to making the best of their old schools.
In Pearisburg, they turned an old school into a community recreation center.
In Pembroke, a school became an apartment building for the elderly.
In Rich Creek, an old school is now a community center town hall.
"I think the schools that are abandoned are still part of communities," said Jim Wheeler, assistant to the superintendent for Giles County Public Schools. "Communities take pride in using them when possible. Here in Giles, it's worked really well."
The schools in Giles, of course, are much smaller than the brick edifice in Blacksburg, which encompasses some 105,000 square feet.
If the school here is left behind, I hope, too, that the architects and others who have been fighting for it will help find an innovative way to keep it a vibrant, proud part of the Blacksburg community.
Madelyn Rosenberg is assistant editor in The Roanoke Times' New River Valley bureau.
by CNB