ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 17, 1996 TAG: 9604170008
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: SALEM
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
A long metal desk sits like a scolded child in the hallway of G.W. Carver Elementary School, its top covered with teacher grade books and brightly colored drawings.
Above it, taped to the concrete wall, hangs a computer printout: "IT WILL ALL BE WORTH IT!"
Since the fall, teachers and students have endured extensive renovations to double the size of the 57-year-old school. The cafeteria has been moved into classrooms. Most of the classrooms are outside, in two neat rows of large trailers.
Several years ago, when the 420-student capacity school was cramped by a growing population, Salem had three options: Raze the building and construct a new school, build a new school on a new site, or renovate.
Squeezed into an entire downtown block, Carver provides a central location and a sense of history for the community. School administrators say the school would have had to relocate farther out of town to find enough available land to build a new school.
The dilemma should resonate with Blacksburg residents, who have been grappling with the same decision for the middle school. Thursday, the School Board is scheduled to decide what would best serve Blacksburg students yet stay within the estimated $36.6 million budget for a total of four new schools in the county.
Many parents and teachers, especially those who went through the renovations from a high to a junior high school in the late 1970s, don't want their children's education to suffer during years of noisy, dusty renovations.
But Annette Shupe, who teaches kindergarten a few hundred yards from steel beams and heavy pounding in Salem, said she's seen minimal inconveniences and surprising benefits.
"It's really sparked some good lessons. We take them over by the fence, right where the construction is going on. The kids think it's neat," she said. Gifted students in an after-school program have even designed their own school.
There is a sense of well-orchestrated chaos at Carver. Children walk single file between a plastic tarp and exposed duct work on one side and the rich, dark wood of cabinets constructed in 1939 on the other. Where the offices now stand, a museum will document the history of Carver during its days as the only free education in the Roanoke Valley for blacks.
The rest of the building is being slowly transformed into a modern facility. A huge skylight brightens what will be an open media center and a science and technology meeting room. Each classroom will be equipped with mounted TVs, sinks and multiple computers.
Older students come near the work site at most twice during the day, on their way to lunch or activities in the gym. A small playground sits near the trailers; school buses provide transportation to nearby Moyers Park for large group activities.
Carver Principal Diane Washenberger said the school and the community support the renovations. The key, she said, is planning.
Every week, Washenberger and Assistant Superintendent Michael Bryant meet with the architects and construction managers to plan construction around the school day.
"You do what you have to do to work around the kids," said Bernie Taylor, who heads the project for Avis Construction.
Crews try to drill or pound after school hours, Taylor said. This winter, they poured a concrete roof at 3 a.m. to avoid disturbing the pupils.
Once the $6.5 million renovation is finished sometime next year, there will be twice as much new structure as there is old. But renovation is a much less expensive way to go, Taylor said.
"It costs millions to tear down and remove an old building. Anytime you can use an old building, it's worth it."
But there isn't enough cost savings or detailed planning to calm the fears of Blacksburg Middle School teachers who've been around long enough to remember the last round of renovations to the building.
Posey Jones, who's been teaching agriculture since 1972, said he remembers the conversion from a high school to a junior high as a two-year disruption.
"There was a lot of noise, a lot of congestion in the parking areas, a lot of equipment being unloaded in areas where students had to access," he said.
Tired of leaky roofs and noisy, crowded cafeterias, Jones questions whether the Blacksburg Middle could ever be renovated enough to equal a new, modern facility.
"I get annoyed at people who talk about what a wonderful structure this is. It may have sound walls, but they're not in here everyday to experience the problems."
For Bryant, whose grandfather laid the intricate brick work in Carver five decades ago, renovation can work.
"Once you understand how the coordination works, and that the safety of the children will not be compromised, then it all starts to make sense," he said.
The Montgomery County School Board will discuss the Blacksburg Middle School site at a special meeting Thursday at 5 p.m. in the board's office on Junkin Street in Christiansburg.
LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: PAUL L. NEWBY II/Staff. 1. Workmen install plumbing inby CNBthe G.W. Carver renovation in Salem. 2. G.W. Carver Elementary is
slowly being transformed into a modern facility. color.