ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 30, 1996 TAG: 9605300060
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
Letter writing. Envelope licking. Phone calling.
Hours of work volunteered by Blacksburg residents to develop, then redesign, then sell a new middle school - all for nothing?
"Oh, we're going to have a new school," said Blacksburg Middle School PTA president Sharon Troy. "It may be delayed a few weeks, but ultimately we have too many trailers, too many students. There's just no place left for us."
A Blacksburg committee recommended the county build a new school on the present middle school site to alleviate overcrowding. Tuesday, school administrators notified Troy and members of that committee that there was a potential problem in their plan.
The study they used to develop a new middle school is flawed. That announcement, made at Tuesday night's Montgomery County School Board meeting, has put hopes for a new school on hold as board members scramble to fix the damage and decide on an alternative.
Superintendent Herman Bartlett said a space study, produced in 1994 by a Roanoke architectural and engineering firm, incorrectly overestimated the number of acres on the present middle school site.
The state requires a middle school of 1,200 students - the planned size for the new school - to be at least 22 acres. Bartlett said the actual size is about 21 acres - several acres below the architects' estimates used by the Blacksburg committee in developing its plan.
School Board member Wat Hopkins said Wednesday that Bartlett acted correctly in bringing the problem to light.
"We have got to be able to present to the community that this is exactly what the problem is," he said.
Vice Chairman Barry Worth was the only member to vote against a motion at Tuesday night's meeting to survey the Blacksburg site. He said later it would be a waste of money.
"I didn't support the Blacksburg middle school plan. To tear down that building and put up another one was wrong. It doesn't matter if we have 21 or 22 acres, it won't work," he said.
Hopkins admitted that if the survey resulted in the required 22 acres, "it's going to put us in a very ticklish situation. Do we want to build on the minimum land?"
The space study, completed by Kinsey, Shane and Associates, estimated it would cost between $69 million and $100 million to bring the county's 19 schools up to modern educational standards and to handle growth anticipated by 2002.
Based on that, the schools developed a 20-year building plan. In the first phase, the county would build a new elementary school in Riner, a new high school in Shawsville and two new middle schools in Christiansburg and Blacksburg.
Construction will begin this summer on a school on 40 acres in Riner. Plans for Christiansburg and Shawsville include new, large sites that far exceed state land requirements.
Only the middle school in Blacksburg will likely be affected by the incorrect estimates.
Bob Fry, a principal in the firm, said Wednesday he didn't want to comment on the study. Fry did meet with the School Board Tuesday night during an executive session.
Last December, the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors fired Kinsey, Shane and Associates from a project to build the new health and human services building.
County Engineer Martin O'Toole said later that the move came as a result of the Oct. 28 collapse of wooden roof trussing of the new building on Pepper Street in Christiansburg.
After the collapse - which was initially attributed to high winds - O'Toole started checking into other areas of the structure and had some concerns, he said.
Whatever the survey of the land finds, board members will have to act quickly if they still want to push for a three-school bond referendum on the fall ballot.
Troy said parents in Christiansburg and Shawsville still plan to push for the new schools as a unified force.
"Their schools could be delayed too and they support us," she said. "All of us want to see these schools built very quickly."
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