ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, June 27, 1996 TAG: 9606270023
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on June 28, 1996.
John Cain is the former director of Virginia Tech's Cooperative
Education program. A story in Thursday's New River Current on Blacksburg
Middle School incorrectly reported his title.
For resident John Cain, it's never too late to change.
Even though the Montgomery County School Board has made its final decision to build a new Blacksburg middle school on acreage likely found outside of downtown, Cain is digging in his heels.
"When I was a boy, there was more focus on teachers and human resources, not on buildings," the former director of Virginia Tech's cooperative extension said. "We have to focus on the learning experiences."
Cain wants more discussion about the impact of moving the present middle school from downtown Blacksburg. He's hired two Virginia Tech architects to study the changes, and plans to hold several community forums to discuss the issue.
Cain is funding the project through Lifeship Earth, a trust he developed to help support community and educational projects. He calls the middle school forums a community service.
"The plan was to enhance the capacity of taxpayers and townsfolk to make better decisions. Not to engage all together in a controversy, but to focus on enabling people to learn what's going on."
Cain hired Donna Dunay and Catherine Albright, two Tech architecture professors who have vocally opposed moving the middle school. They first caught the attention of members of the Board of Supervisors with a hypothetical study of how a school enhances the quality of life in a town.
That philosophy - that schools are essential to a thriving community - threw a wrench into the School Board's plan to alleviate overcrowding by building a 1,200-pupil middle school on 38 acres. A compromise was reached, and the School Board agreed to tear down the present middle school and build a new one on the current site.
But a month ago, school administrators found the present site to be just under state acreage requirements. The School Board could apply to the state for an exception to the acreage rule, but members decided against that and went back to their original decision. The county Board of Supervisors, which has the final say on funding the new school, hasn't made a decision yet on the middle school.
As part of the project, Dunay and Albright are creating concrete information that they're hoping will spark discussion that goes beyond acreage requirements and money.
The best way to develop responsible citizens, they argue, is to give them concrete examples of community life.
The present Blacksburg Middle School, Albright said, "is within five minutes walking distance from the police station, the town municipal building, the library, churches ..."
As a result of their research - which included interviewing Principal Gary McCoy as well as New York City administrators who are renovating schools themselves - the two designed possible expansion plans for the building.
They also have a "report card" to evaluate enhancements like proximity to town activities and facilities.
"These are prompts to make the discussions focused on what is important for a school," Dunay said.
A petition with 300 signatures, presented to the Board of Supervisors this week, showed support for the present site. That kind of community support, Cain said, shows people are interested in the makeup of their town.
Whether the forums, scheduled to begin in July, will influence the Board of Supervisors to change the middle school plan doesn't matter, Cain said.
"We're just trying to be good citizens, as it were," he said.
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