ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 23, 1996 TAG: 9603260003
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK SLUSHER
A BOND issue buys a new crowded high school and half-empty middle schools. Is this progress?
A March 8 letter to the editor (``Sweating out the school days'') by Mary Nasca, president of the Parent-Teacher Association at Cave Spring Junior High School, addressed some of the problems that exist at that school. As a Southwest County resident and parent of school-age children, I also attended the community meetings presented by the architectural engineering firm Moseley McClintock. I would like to bring to light some additional information about our Southwest County school situation.
Cave Spring Junior High is currently overcrowded with 935 students in a facility designed for 786. Let's look a little closer and see why. Hidden Valley Junior High, in an adjacent geographical zone, has 820 students with a capacity for 1,020. If you add these, you have a total enrollment of 1,755 and capacity for 1,806. Cave Spring Junior High is overcrowded because the School Board and parents cannot agree on how to divide the students between the two schools.
Cave Spring Junior High does fail to meet state standards in a number of areas. Many of these standards are based on a certain number of square feet of art, music, etc., space per student. If you eliminate overcrowding, these ratios improve since you're using the same space for fewer students.
When a new high school is built, the ninth grade will move to the high school, resulting in substantially lower enrollment for the remaining sixth- through eighth-grade middle-school population. If the new high school opens in 1999 as projected, Southwest County middle-school enrollment (sixth through eighth grade) would be 1,405 students, or 78 percent of current capacity. Projected sixth- through eighth-grade enrollment in 2004 would be 1,425 students, or 79 percent of capacity using current facilities. When you abandon the 786-student Cave Spring Junior High School and move these students to the 1,300-student Cave Spring High School, utilization drops even further. Using 1999 enrollment projections, Southwest County middle-school enrollment would be 1,405 in a capacity for 2,300 - or 61 percent of capacity.
Much has been made of the annual operating savings of the proposed 1,900-student high school vs. operating two smaller high schools. Moseley McClintock detailed these figures during public meetings last fall, and they presented a persuasive argument for going with one high school. Keep in mind, however, that Moseley McClintock benefited financially from this decision, since a larger school means more dollars to the firm for design services.
Moseley McClintock said the 61 percent capacity ``slightly underutilizes the two middle schools.'' I call it significant underutilization, especially in light of the projected enrollment figures for the new high school. Also, no accounting was made of the annual excess operating expense required to operate two underutilized middle-school facilities or to maintain the empty Cave Spring Junior High. Extra interest due to the increased construction cost for a larger school also wasn't reported. Including these figures might have dampened enthusiasm for the large, costly 1,900-student high-school plan.
If the new proposed high school opens as scheduled, the 1,900-student high school will be at 97 percent capacity with a projected ninth- through 12th-grade enrollment of 1,840. By comparison, Cave Spring High is currently at 92 percent capacity! Using projected enrollment figures, the new high school will be over capacity in 2003, only four years after the planned opening. The School Board is counting on enrollment peaking about this time and holding steady in future years. I hope its calculations are right, or we'll be making expensive additions to this school even before the main facility needs its first repainting.
There were other alternatives. The School Board. for example, could have voted for a 1,000-student high school and 500-student middle-school complex, saving $4.6 million (Oct. 9, 1995 cost projections). The current Cave Spring High School facility would be retained under this plan. This would have put capacity more in line with projected enrollment in grades sixth through 12th, but with some increased operating costs associated with having two high schools. I think operating savings could be found in other areas of faculty, staff and programs.
Such difficult, complicated issues require looking at from several points of view before making an informed decision. Does Southwest County need a new high school? I think the answer is yes. Does the $33.6 million, 1,900-student high-school plan represent the best value, now and in the future, for taxpayers? I'm not convinced.
Mark Slusher of Roanoke is an electrical engineer.
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