ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 30, 1996 TAG: 9604300083
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
Because of overcrowding in some schools and little likelihood for early relief, school officials will consider redrawing the attendance lines for several elementary and junior high schools in Southwest Roanoke County.
The School Board plans to appoint a study committee soon that will make recommendations for the realignment of attendance zones - a sometimes emotional and controversial topic. The committee will include parents.
The decision follows county voters' rejection of a plan to finance a new Cave Spring High School, a move that would have let the county close the cramped Cave Spring Junior High.
Opponents of the bond issue urged the county School Board to redraw attendance lines to help ease overcrowding, saying that would be cheaper than building new schools.
Superintendent Deanna Gordon said Monday that changes in attendance zones wouldn't eliminate overcrowding at Cave Spring High, because there is no place to move any of its students, but it could ease the squeeze at Cave Spring Junior.
One likely change would be a shift of some students from Cave Spring Junior to Hidden Valley Junior, which is below capacity.
Cave Spring Junior was built to hold 785 students. This year, it has 935. The school is using eight mobile classrooms to handle the overflow.
Hidden Valley Junior was built to accommodate 1,020 students and has only 824 this year.
Both schools house children in grades six through nine who live in Southwest County. Their attendance lines adjoin.
Parents and school officials have raised other possible changes, such as moving all sixth-or ninth-graders in Southwest County to Hidden Valley Junior.
If all ninth-graders are at one school, some parents believe, more courses and other services could be offered to them, Gordon said. Others have suggested moving all sixth-graders to Hidden Valley to free up part of Cave Spring Junior for renovation during the school year.
One objective in redrawing attendance lines would be eliminating the current situation in which fifth-graders at Cave Spring Elementary are split between Cave Spring Junior and Hidden Valley Junior when they go into the sixth grade.
"We would like to prevent this emotional trauma for children who are split up and go to a different school than their friends," Gordon said. In any reshuffling of attendance zones, she said, school officials want to make certain that children at other elementary schools are not divided when they go to junior high.
Gordon said she expects the study committee will look at the attendance lines for all elementary schools in Southwest County.
Cave Spring, Oak Grove and Penn Forest elementary schools are near or above capacity.
Gordon has recommended that the committee hold at least three public meetings to get parents' views. "We want to get the ideas and suggestions from a lot of people," she said. "This is not just something for school officials to decide."
James Gallion, assistant superintendent, said changes in attendance lines can generate strong feelings. "This is a complicated and emotional issue. It's going to take a lot of study."
Gallion said some families choose to live in a neighborhood because they want their children to attend a particular school. Some parents get upset if they are faced with the prospect of their children being bused out of the neighborhood to another school, he said.
But some parents at Penn Forest Elementary have requested that their children attend Hidden Valley when they reach the sixth grade rather than go to overcrowded Cave Spring, Gallion said.
Gallion said the redrawing of attendance zones will be affected by the county's decision on the long-range solution to space problems - whether Cave Spring Junior is renovated, Cave Spring High is expanded or a new school is built.
The county has been unable to implement the middle school concept in Southwest County because there is no room for ninth-graders at the high school.
In other areas of the county, ninth-graders attend high schools, and middle schools house the sixth, seventh and eighth grades.
Gordon said she is still committed to getting the ninth-graders into high school despite the defeat of the bond issue. One option would be to expand Cave Spring High, but some parents have told the School Board that the county shouldn't abandon the idea of a new high school.
"We shouldn't give up too early on our long-range plan," said Kathy Batchler, the mother of two junior high students.
Renovation of Cave Spring Junior won't solve the problem for ninth-graders, she said.
"Our real goal should be a new high school," Batchler said. "We need to rework our plan to include a new school."
The School Board plans to develop a new package of school improvements that will include projects from Southwest County and other areas to counter complaints that the defeated bond issue favored one area. Chairman Jerry Canada said the new plan will rank projects by priority and will be complete by early next year.
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