ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 15, 1996 TAG: 9603150044
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: DUBLIN
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Pulaski County residents made clear again Wednesday night that they want to keep their small community schools where they are - even if it will be difficult and expensive to update them to handle modern technology.
The nearly 300 people who turned out for a second "community conversation" at Pulaski County High School expressed their preferences on school needs in questionnaires, after hearing the options and costs for school construction.
The options grew out of views expressed at a similar meeting Feb. 8, where consultants asked residents what they wanted and would be willing to support.
One option does include closing Draper, Northwood and Newbern elementary schools. They could be replaced with two new elementary schools or the county's middle schools could be converted to elementary schools, the consultants said. The middle schools, in turn, could be replaced by one or two new middle schools.
But while that idea got some support, it fared much less favorably than the option of adding to and renovating the existing elementary schools.
Participants at the meeting split pretty evenly on whether the major construction priorities were at the middle or elementary schools. They agreed that Pulaski County High School, one of the county's two newest school buildings, should be the third priority.
But even that school has obvious repair needs. "As we look around, there are some buckets catching water in this cafeteria even as we sit in it," said William DeJong, one of the consultants.
No matter what options are finally chosen, DeJong said, some students will have to move to different schools. "All of these scenarios will require some adjustments in attendance boundaries," he said.
"I guess the good news is there's not a whole lot of cost difference between these options," said consultant Jim Copeland. "There's nobody who believes we're going to sit down and do all this at one time."
Questionnaire participants showed support for a bond issue, mostly in the $20 million to $30 million range, to address school facility needs. The estimated costs of the various options ranged from $20 million to $26 million to address middle school needs, $10.2 million to $11.2 million for elementary schools in the western part of the county, and around $13 million for those in the eastern part.
A Facilities Committee has been studying county school needs and will meet at 7 p.m. April 29 at the high school to go over the community reaction shown at Wednesday's session.
LENGTH: Medium: 51 linesby CNB