ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 2, 1996 TAG: 9604020051
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
With one school-site ordeal out of the way, the Montgomery County School Board plans to tackle another controversial site decision.
Tonight, the board will discuss which option will best fill the need for a new middle school in Blacksburg: Build a new school on a new site; renovate the present Blacksburg Middle School; or build a new school behind the present school.
One week ago, the Board of Supervisors agreed with the School Board's recommendation for a new elementary school in Riner and voted to buy 40 acres from a local farmer. The decision came after weeks of flip-flop decisions had split the community.
The Riner school is the first of four projects the School Board hopes to accomplish in five years.
Funding for the other three new schools - new middle schools in Blacksburg and Christiansburg and a new high school in Shawsville - might depend on whether voters will support a bond referendum this fall.
Originally, a Blacksburg committee of parents and teachers recommended the board find a new site to build a middle school. But residents and Virginia Tech architects protested the idea of vacating the 40-year-old building in downtown Blacksburg.
Architects who had sketched several possible options added a plan to renovate the present middle school. Two public hearings drew dozens of concerned parents and teachers. The Blacksburg Planning Commission even recommended the middle school stay where it is.
Again, a split developed within the community - this time between those who wanted to keep the school as a focal point of downtown and others who couldn't imagine children trying to learn while renovations were taking place just outside the classroom walls.
The committee compromised. Their new recommendation - to build a new school on the same site, then demolish the present school - is the most expensive option on the table.
School administrators estimate the entire project would cost about $18 million. Renovating the present school would cost $16.4 million; purchasing a new site and building there would run $17.5 million.
For many parents, the extra cost is worth it.
"I don't think there's any compelling reason to renovate" the present building, said Sharon Troy, president of the Blacksburg Middle School PTA, who favors the latest committee recommendation.
Troy and several other parents, teachers and administrators toured two schools being renovated in Botetourt County and Martinsville.
She said the schools were suffering noise and dust problems and had no way to secure the buildings.
Troy will speak during the public address section of tonight's 7:30 meeting at the School Board office in Christiansburg.
If the phone calls and letters sent to School Board member Wat Hopkins are any indication, Troy won't be the only one with something to say.
"I've received more comments on this one issue than any other issue since I've been on the board," he said. Hopkins, who began representing District G, in January, said most parents were against having their children in a school that was being renovated.
Two board members, Bernie Jortner and Mary Beth Dunkenberger, are out of town and will not be at the meeting.
"Anytime you have a decision to make that is as important as this one," Hopkins said, "I'm concerned when there isn't a full board."
The Montgomery County School Board will discuss the Blacksburg Middle School site at its meeting tonight at 7:30 in the board's office on Junkin Street in Christiansburg.
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