ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 22, 1996 TAG: 9606240033
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
"It's easier to move a cemetery than move a school."
That saying, heard at a meeting of about 20 Bethel Elementary School parents and area residents Thursday, sums up the emotion surrounding the closing of the 40-year-old school.
In an 11th-hour scramble, members of the Bethel community organized the meeting to protest Montgomery County's school-building plan. Specifically, they are against moving Bethel students to a new, 750-pupil school in Riner.
Depending on how much steam the group gathers, this could add yet another glitch in a four-school building plan that's been slow to gain across-the-board support.
It took almost a year for the Board of Supervisors to negotiate a land purchase for the new elementary school in Riner.
The land, located just behind the present Riner Elementary School, had been held in trust for a young farmer. Emotions ran high early this spring, as the supervisors alternately condemned the 40-acre lot, then offered to buy a smaller piece of the farm land, then finally agreed to purchase the entire acreage.
It was about that time, said parent Carolyn Hinkley, that Bethel residents began to take notice.
"When I was at Auburn [High School] they talked about closing it. It was always a passing issue, but now we're realizing this is a serious thing," she said during the three-hour meeting.
In the past two years, a committee of Bethel and Riner residents spoke to PTAs and requested written comments from parents about the new school plan. Some residents at the meeting said they had been left out of the process because they didn't have children in the school system.
Bethel Principal Jeff Perry acknowledged that even though notices were put in newspapers, more could have been done to contact the community at large. He also said that overall, a majority of residents who call him are in favor of the new school.
The handful who spoke against sending children to Riner said they would rather see improvements done to Bethel instead.
"We realize we are overcrowded. It would be nice to have a gym and more classrooms. But we feel a community school, where everybody knows everybody, that's important for our children," said Julia Smith, a grandmother of a Bethel student and one of the meeting organizers.
People look out for children whose parents work, Smith said, and watch over groups of kids after school. Smith questioned whether those people would be willing to do so if they had to drive another 10 minutes each way to the Riner school.
Susan Miller, a teacher at Riner whose children went to Bethel, argued that some inconvenience was worth the benefits.
A larger school, she said, would provide all students with updated equipment and programs, along with low pupil-teacher ratios. Bethel has more than 200 pupils and six mobile classrooms crowd the back of the school. School officials say the building is landlocked, with no room to grow and a busy, four-lane highway right out front.
For some residents, the issue goes beyond educational issues.
"If you take the school out of the neighborhood, you pretty much take away the community," said Frank Sale.
Sale, who owns some of the land behind the school, said bulldozers could easily flatten the hills, which rise steeply beyond the mobile classrooms. Sale said he wasn't interested in selling his land, "but the county has eminent domain, don't they?"
Barry Worth, vice chairman of the School Board who represents the Bethel/Riner area, said no one has decided to close or demolish the school. He said the building could be turned into an alternative school for troubled teens, or a community center.
Supervisor Joe Gorman, who represents part of the Blacksburg area, said he would support keeping Bethel open.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Henry Jablonski, who represents the area, did not attend the meeting. Smith said she invited all supervisors and School Board members, but some only a day or two beforehand.
Bob and Melissa Mitchell, parents of an upcoming fifth-grader and a kindergartner, said they support the new school, especially because of the growth around Bethel. They cited the 98-home neighborhood planned off Rock Road and the new Carilion Radford Community Hospital planned for just south of Bethel.
"We need to plan for the future," said Melissa Mitchell. "We need to upgrade for the children. These people need to realize this is going to benefit [Riner] too."
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