ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, May 27, 1996 TAG: 9605290010
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-5 EDITION: HOLIDAY
TYPE: READERS FORUM
Make better use of what's there
USE WHAT we have. A plan:
Convert Cave Spring High School into a middle school with 1,050 students (maximum). Keep Hidden Valley Middle School with 900 students (maximum). Convert Cave Spring Junior High into a new high school with a new gymnasium (1,800 students maximum).
Move all outdoor athletic facilities to the Merriman Road site. It's a short commute for athletes, and there's plenty of parking. This site - 35 acres, some in a flood plain - should be suitable for multipurpose recreational use. Save the most desirable land for a future elementary school.
U.S. 221 South has been improved and will be completed by the Virginia Department of Transportation to Bent Mountain. Convert the old county administration building to a magnet high school for gifted students (250 maximum). Allow entry by grade merit only.
Roanoke city and Salem have done very well with remodeling their schools. We certainly can learn from them.
J. KEITH BOHON
ROANOKE
First, get rid of the bugs
THE ROANOKE County school system has serious problems with the Cave Spring schools.
Major improvements should be made at Cave Spring Junior High School. There are mice, roaches, bugs, bees, ants and many other insects living there. Lack of air conditioning makes the school very hot during the beginning and end of the school year.
Also, it's so overcrowded that sometimes students have to stand still and ride the wave to their next class. Due to overcrowding, one grade will have to relocate to another junior high school so that some renovations to this 50-year-old school can be made.
Cave Spring High School shares the problem of overcrowding. Also, students lack the updated technology to receive full knowledge of such courses as computer science.
There are many ways Roanoke County can correct these problems. There should be a complete renovation at Cave Spring Junior High School to give this school air-conditioning and get rid of all the insects. To solve the overcrowding problem, add on to the school. However, because there's no land to work with, a plan for a new junior high school should be made by the year 2000. If students need to be relocated to a new junior high, it should be rising sixth-graders because they have never gone to Cave Spring Junior High School.
To solve the high school's problems, the county Board of Supervisors should make an attempt to pass the bond referendum without rushing it through the system.
DAVID BILLINGSLEY
ROANOKE
Elected officials must do their duty
I AM an eighth-grade student at Cave Spring Junior High School. I'm not pleased with the environment in which I spend more than six hours of my childhood day for learning. It's hot in the spring and fall because we don't have air-conditioning. It's cold some days in the winter. And, most of all, I'm sick and tired of not being able to walk through the halls without being pushed and stepped on.
I'm certainly not the only one at the school who is disappointed that members of the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors have not taken matters into their own hands regarding a bond issue. Instead of voting themselves for a bond issue, the elected officials backed off and let the people in the county decide. I believe elected officials were afraid the people wouldn't like their action. But this comes with the job. Officials are elected to perform and make decisions in the best interest of the people. Leaving it up to citizens was a poor choice because some have become so selfish that whenever they hear the words ``higher taxes,'' they immediately oppose an idea.
It also concerns me that all students who go through Cave Spring and Hidden Valley junior high schools do not have a chance to be in a high-school setting for their freshman year. Nothing can be done about this in my school career, but it troubles me that nothing is being done to correct this situation. At least give freshmen an opportunity to be with those in their own grade for four years by having all ninth-graders go to Hidden Valley. This would also help solve the problem of overcrowding.
VALERIE BLEVINS
ROANOKE
Leadership is needed
THE ROANOKE County Board of Supervisors, the School Board, the superintendent of schools, the county administrator and other knowledgeable people in the county government should work out a way to give all county children an equitable education.
Voters cannot solve this problem. It's the duty of our leaders, and they should solve this problem very soon.
However, Roanoke County residents will have to face up to the issue of financing the education of children.
HELEN K. CRUMPACKER
ROANOKE
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