ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, September 10, 1996 TAG: 9609100079
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors, in a strong message to the School Board, voted 6-1 Monday to recommend Blacksburg Middle School stay where it is.
A new Blacksburg Middle School is part of a $34million plan to build four schools in the county.
Whether to renovate the existing Blacksburg Middle School or build a new one has been a continuing dispute among the Board of Supervisors, School Board and Blacksburg residents.
The School Board has twice voted to build on a new site outside of downtown.
A majority of the supervisors said in April they opposed tearing down the school to build a new one at the same site. That's what the School Board was considering until it learned the property the school sits on was too small by state standards for a 1,200-pupil school.
Since then, the School Board has asked the supervisors to act on its request to acquire land for the new school, but no action has been taken.
"The School Board and this board - we don't seem to be able to move in any particular direction. It's time we moved on it," said County Supervisor Jim Moore, who had the resolution put on the agenda.
Moore said the resolution approved Monday "is not saying to the School Board what to do with the site," only that the supervisors think the property is large enough to meet the needs of projected enrollment through 2006 and should be the site of a new middle school or an expanded and renovated school.
Monday's vote was significant because it sent a clear message that the supervisors won't support building a brand-new school
Because the Board of Supervisors holds the purse strings to any building project, the final decision is made by that board.
Supervisor Mary Biggs cast the only vote against the resolution. Biggs said she has heard from several parents who do not want their children attending school where construction is ongoing.
Biggs said that while she agreed "we need to get the ball rolling ... I don't think this is the proper way to do it. I think this is a matter the School Board needs to deal with, and I don't favor telling them how to do it."
Some supervisors said discovery of the site's being too small was manufactured to bolster the School Board's support for a new school, although school administrators insist the surveying company failed to provide accurate acreage estimates. Proponents of keeping the middle school downtown say its proximity to the public library on Draper Road and to other downtown shops and offices make it an attractive site.
The resolution says population studies predict an enrollment peak of 969 students at Blacksburg Middle in 1997, with a five-year decline in students enrollment after that. A School Board study also places peak enrollment in the mid-900s in 1997, with an enrollment of just less than 1,000 in 2006.
School Board Chairwoman Annette Perkins told supervisors that 925 students were enrolled at the school by the third day of classes this year.
But Perkins and School Board member Jim Klaage said many people signed the petition when they thought a new 1,200-pupil school could be built on the existing property.
Perkins said after the vote she wasn't sure how her board would react.
Staff writer Lisa Applegate contributed to this story.
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