ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996 TAG: 9603290106
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: G1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER
A new 1,900-student Cave Spring High School will be built on a site on Merriman Road near the Penn Forest Elementary School. Construction will begin by late this year or early next year and be finished in about two years.
Ninth-graders at Cave Spring Junior and Hidden Valley Junior high schools will be moved to the new high school.
Cave Spring High will be converted to a middle school for 750 students. The sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders at Cave Spring Junior will be moved to the middle school.
The School Board will discontinue use of Cave Spring Junior, but it will likely ask the Board of Supervisors to retain control of the property as a possible future site for a school if there is growth in the area.
Hidden Valley Junior will be converted to a 750-student middle school for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders.
The Northside auditorium, classroom and gym project, under construction, will be completed and will open during the next school year.
New equipment will be installed in Glenvar Middle School, which will open this fall. Renovations will be made at Glenvar High School.
The county will buy $1 million worth of computers and other technology for all schools. The technology money will be allocated to schools on a per-pupil basis.
Mount Pleasant Elementary School will be renovated and enlarged.
Architects and engineers will be hired to prepare plans for additions to Oak Grove Elementary and William Byrd Middle schools.
The School Board will make studies of school needs in other areas of the county and establish priorities for future improvements. It has already identified about $50 million in needed projects.
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