ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 29, 1996 TAG: 9608290034
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
There was amicable small talk, and a few old misconceptions were cleared up. There was even a bit of political grandstanding and one or two carefully placed verbal jabs.
What the joint meeting between Montgomery County's School Board and Board of Supervisors did not have, though, was any action. No clear consensus emerged on what to do about new schools planned for Blacksburg, Christiansburg and the Shawsville area. A new elementary school in Riner is already in the works.
For months, both boards had been talking about meeting. Tuesday, for the first time in more than a year, the two boards finally sat down together for a three-hour dinner and discussion.
Relations between the boards hit a low point last year, given the annual budget wars and the struggle for control over the school-building project. Much of Tuesday's meeting, held at a Christiansburg restaurant, focused on rehashing and smoothing over those battles.
But even after several years of growth predictions and building plans, some supervisors questioned the need for new schools.
"School space needs are not driven by growth, they're based on the way we've changed how we teach," said Supervisor Nick Rush. He cited the team-teaching method implemented at middle schools that require more open space for students.
Gaining trust on both sides has been slow going. For example, Board of Supervisors Chairman Henry Jablonski asked if school administrators had changed the planned size of the new middle school in Blacksburg from 1,000 students to 1,200.
The core facilities - such as the cafeteria and heating system - will be built for an enrollment of 1,200, explained Superintendent Herman Bartlett. The classrooms could comfortably hold 1,000, but the building could handle more if necessary.
The boards never discussed specifically how to fund the schools. Jablonski wouldn't even say whether the possibility of a bond referendum on November's ballot has been dropped by the supervisors, though the deadline is nine days away.
School Board members, unhappy with this year's budget allocations, asked for some type of plan to prepare for present and future debt on the building projects.
Earlier this year, the supervisors funded only a portion of the School Board's requested 12 percent increase in the school budget. Debt service, or interest, on the loan to pay for the school in Riner was included in that budget.
The School Board had to take the $147,000 from other programs to pay for that debt service. The boards will face the debt service for the next two decades, though its cost will decrease each year.
Tuesday, several School Board members wanted to know if the supervisors would pay for the projected $800,000 in debt service next year from their own budget.
Jablonski would only say that his board would have to wait until it sees the school budget to decide.
In the end, said School Board Chairwoman Annette Perkins, the meeting achieved as much as it could.
"We can't lose, really," she said. "As long as we can improve communication between the boards, we're moving in the right direction."
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