ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 31, 1996 TAG: 9607310044
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
SCHOOL OFFICIALS ARE telling kids not to get their hopes up. The construction will be finished by opening day.
Middle school students in Southeast Roanoke, take note.
Don't be misled by the piles of dirt and gravel, concrete forms and other debris around Stonewall Jackson Middle School. You won't get a longer summer vacation while the school is finished.
The building will be ready by Sept. 3, the opening date for Roanoke schools, said Richard Kelley, assistant superintendent for operations.
The landscaping might not be finished when school opens, and grass won't be growing where it has been torn up by the construction. And some of the new computer equipment might not yet be operating, Kelley said Tuesday.
But the $6 million school will be ready for classes, the furniture will be installed, and all safety inspections will have been completed, he said.
It's 34 days and counting to the opening of school, but a bulldozer can clear away the piles of dirt and debris quickly, Kelley said.
"They can clean that up fast, and we can plant the grass and trees after school opens," he said.
The projected occupancy date is Aug. 26.
"We hope that teachers can move in the last week in August so they can get prepared for the opening of schools," Kelley said.
Principal Helen Townsend is scheduled to move into her office next week. Townsend, who is moving to Jackson from a similar post at Breckinridge Middle School, has been working in a temporary office at William Fleming High this summer.
Breckinridge will be closed for a year for renovation, and the school's seventh-graders will be housed at Jackson this year.
Jackson must be completed by the start of school because there is nowhere else to put its projected 570 students, including Breckinridge's seventh-graders, Townsend said.
Wrecking crews already have started razing much of the Breckinridge building, but the facade will be preserved.
Breckinridge sixth-graders will attend James Madison Middle School, and the eighth-graders will go to William Ruffner Middle.
The interior construction at Jackson is closer to completion than it appears from the outside, Kelley said. The third floor is essentially finished, and workers are making rapid progress on the first and second floors, he said. The ceilings and floors have been finished, and lockers are being installed.
The outside brickwork has been basically completed, and construction is set to begin on some sidewalks.
Some computer and lab equipment might not be working fully by the first day, but should be working within 30 days after the school year starts, Kelley said.
The project includes construction of a new classroom building to replace a 72-year-old structure. The school's cafeteria and gymnasium, which were built in the 1960s, are being renovated.
Some Southeast Roanoke residents and Jackson alumni opposed the razing of the old classroom building because, they said, the neighborhood would lose part of its architecture and history.
But architects and school officials said the old building could not be renovated to meet the needs of a modern middle school.
The building had load-bearing walls that could not be moved to create smaller rooms. It also had high ceilings and wasted space that could not have been corrected by renovation, architects said.
The new building faces Montrose Avenue Southeast. The old structure faced Ninth Street. The school is set back from Montrose so buses can leave the street and circle in front of the building to load and unload children. In the past, the buses stopped in the street because there was no space to pull off.
Construction on the building began after school closed in June 1995.
The project was delayed by heavy snow and cold last winter, but the contractor, Nielsen Construction Co. of Harrisonburg, brought in additional employees and worked longer hours in recent months to get on schedule.
Designed by Motley & Associates of Roanoke, the new school won a statewide award from the Virginia School Boards Association for architectural creativity and design in school buildings.
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. PHILIP HOLMAN STAFF A construction worker passes anby CNBunfinished window at Stonewall Jackson Middle School. color
2. Piles of construction materials and debris may be everywhere now,
but the cleanup will be fast, officials say. color
3. PHILIP HOLMAN STAFF David Martin of General Elevator Co. of
Roanoke installs a guide-rail bracket Tuesday in an elevator shaft
at Stonewall Jackson. There are more than 100 construction workers
at the site this week.