ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, June 19, 1996 TAG: 9606190073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
For the second time in two years, a committee of Blacksburg residents told the Montgomery County School Board what to do with the overcrowded middle school.
Tuesday night, the board listened.
In a 5-4 vote, the board narrowly agreed to build a new, 1,200-pupil middle school on a 38-acre site.
Board members Mary Beth Dunkenberger, Bernie Jortner, Jim Klagge and Wat Hopkins voted against the plan, expressing concern for such a large middle school.
Klagge sited Monday's approval of the "smart" road by the Board of Supervisors as an example of potential massive growth in Blacksburg. The present 900-student middle school is stretched to capacity. For example, lunch begins about 10 a.m. because the cafeteria can't seat more than 200 kids at a time.
"Maybe we need to plan for that growth. I don't know anyone who would support a much larger school than 1,200," he said.
Vice-Chairman Barry Worth, who voted for the new school, said the board still will have the present building. If student population does increase, the board has the option to use it as another middle school.
Some board members supported renovating the school and building another 600-pupil school to keep the size small.
Gary Worth, principal of the middle school and a member of the committee, said operational costs for that option would double. Having one school, he said, would allow more educational opportunities, such as a full-time foreign language teachers.
The 1,200 pupil school - the original recommendation made by the committee of parents and teachers - inevitably would move the school far outside of downtown Blacksburg, where that kind of land is available.
But other Blacksburg residents - and members of the Board of Supervisors, who will fund this and three other school building projects - asked that the school stay at the present site. The public library, which is being expanded, and Virginia Tech are a few of the benefits to keeping the school downtown, they argued.
So, the committee regrouped, and recommended the School Board tear down the present school, which is more than 40 years old, and build a modern facility on the same site.
But that plan fell through a few weeks ago. School administrators found a flaw in the long-range facility study.
The present middle school site is .08 acre under the state requirements for a 1,200-pupil middle school.
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