ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 16, 1996 TAG: 9605160160
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
SORRY. WE know a lot of Roanoke County residents would like the squabbling over school funding to go away. It won't, though, until problems of overcrowding and inadequate facilities in the Cave Spring area are fully addressed.
That said, county supervisors acted appropriately this week in voting to pay for completion of Northside Middle School's gym and at least part of the instructional equipment needed for the new Glenvar Middle School.
Money for the latter was cut in half - an act that some will regard as political retribution against the Glenvar area, where most voters opposed the bond referendum that would have paid to meet all of these school demands.
It probably was retribution in part. Certainly grudges linger, and that's unfortunate. But there is also less money to spend on school projects everywhere in the county, given the absence of a bond issue. And the county's political fracturing was a predictable result of the bond issue's recent defeat.
The county must move forward anyway. Indeed, it would be senseless to leave projects outside the Cave Spring area unfinished, to the benefit of no one and the long-term detriment of all. Such a course would only further the damage done by the bond-issue setback both to Roanoke County's efforts (until now) to build on the quality of its instructional program and to the school district's strained sense of common purpose.
Besides, political finger-pointing has only limited thrust. Sure, the bond issue was rejected overwhelmingly outside the Cave Spring and Windsor Hills districts, which would have benefited most by snagging funding for a new Cave Spring High School. But stronger support in populous Southwest County could have overwhelmed the "no" vote in the county's other three districts.
And the referendum faced obstacles beyond the jealousies and unrelated grievances of other parts of the county. Doubts about the suitability of the site for the proposed high school surfaced, for instance, as did some residents' desire for two smaller high schools rather than one large one. Far more serious was the scarcity of careful planning and strong leadership on the Board of Supervisors in support of the referendum.
Now, with no big chunk of money to spend on solutions, the county still must solve the problems it started out with.
Will the $2.5 million for air-conditioning and electrical upgrading at Cave Spring Junior High be money well-spent? Who knows? With the obvious solution to the intricately interconnected space problems in Southwest County schools swept off the table by disaffected voters, the future use of the building is a question mark.
But after delaying those improvements more than five years - figuring new facilities might soon be built and the school closed - further dallying is unimaginable. Time to get on with it, and turn citizens' energies to the more complex task of solving the space crunch that won't, on its own, go away.
LENGTH: Medium: 55 linesby CNB