ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, June 13, 1996 TAG: 9606130036
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
By this fall, Cave Spring Junior High School could resemble a village of mobile classrooms.
Roanoke County school officials have dropped the idea of shifting one grade from Cave Spring Junior to Hidden Valley Junior, which would have freed up space for air-conditioning installation and an electrical system upgrade.
Instead, they have decided to use eight new mobile classrooms, in addition to the eight already being used, so part of the building can be vacated to allow the $2.5million project to begin during the next school year.
Cave Spring Junior was built to hold 785 students. This past year, it had 935.
Hidden Valley was built to accommodate 1,020 students, but had only 825 this past year.
School officials had considered moving the sixth- or ninth-graders at Cave Spring to Hidden Valley next year, but decided that adding mobile classrooms would cause less disruption. Students can be shifted to the mobile rooms as the work proceeds.
Both schools house children in grades six through nine, and their attendance lines adjoin.
Teacher reassignment and transportation costs would have been higher if one grade had been moved as opposed to no action at all, said Marty Robison, executive assistant for county schools.
"The feeling is that fewer changes would have to be made if we use the mobile classrooms," Robison said.
Mary Nasca, president of the Cave Spring Junior Parent-Teacher Association, said most parents agree with the decision.
"The teachers would have been split between the schools and that could have been disruptive," she said.
The additional cost for busing the children to Hidden Valley and related expenses would have been about the same as the mobile classrooms, she said.
Homer Duff, director of facilities and operations for county schools, said work on the air conditioning and electrical system will begin this fall and be completed by fall 1997.
The Board of Supervisors voted recently to fund the project after county voters rejected a bond issue for a new Cave Spring High, a move that would have enabled school officials to close the cramped Cave Spring Junior.
Cave Spring Junior High has deficiencies besides its space crunch, but the supervisors have postponed a decision on a major renovation until consultants complete a study of school needs throughout the county.
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