ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, September 11, 1996 TAG: 9609130080
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
The goal was to get the "ball rolling" on a new middle school, but many are criticizing the Board of Supervisors for pushing in the wrong direction.
Monday night, the supervisors asked the School Board to change its decision - for the third time - and keep Blacksburg Middle School downtown.
"We've been talking and talking about this; petitions have been flying around," said Supervisor Jim Moore, who proposed the move. "I'm just hoping it'll break the logjam."
But School Board Chairwoman Annette Perkins said Wednesday there was no logjam.
School Board members "have done our job," she said. "We have listened, we have investigated, we have made our decision and we have given our recommendation [for a new school site] to the Board of Supervisors."
For almost a year, community residents, School Board members and supervisors have been debating where to locate a new, larger Blacksburg middle school.
A committee of parents and teachers originally recommended the school be built on a new site, which would likely move it outside of town where larger parcels of land are available.
Susan DiSalvo, who served on that committee, said she felt that recommendation was ignored.
"I am disappointed that they've wasted my time and the other members of the committee," she said. "If the Board of Supervisors knew what they wanted ahead of time, they should have just let us know."
But other Blacksburg residents wanted to keep the school where it is, arguing that students gain from having access to downtown offices and shops, as well as Virginia Tech.
Kim Harris, whose fourth-grade daughter will attend the middle school in two years, said those residents had the ear of supervisors.
"Everybody's touched by this to a certain extent," she said. "But parents need to have strong input, and they didn't have it."
John Cain, a local resident, commissioned two Tech architecture professors to examine the benefits of community schools. He said he wanted people to consider more options than simply moving and building the school elsewhere.
"Everyone had an opportunity to participate," he said. "It went on long enough for people to come out and give their opinions."
Perkins said the School Board may discuss what to do at its meeting next week. The board could renovate and expand the present building, or tear it down and rebuild.
The School Board has already discussed and rejected both options. School administrators have contended that, based on state requirements, the present site is too small for a 1,200-pupil middle school. But the state has often issued waivers of that regulation for school systems wishing to build in cities with limited space.
Other options include creating two smaller middle schools. Some parents have even discussed setting up one school for fifth- and sixth-graders - which also could help alleviate overcrowding in Blacksburg elementary schools - and another for seventh- and eighth-graders. Both ideas could still use the present building.
Harris said her main concern is the safety of the children, who would likely be near a construction zone during either renovation or building a new school. If a compromise can be reached on the school while keeping pupils away from construction, she said, she would be satisfied.
In the meantime, Blacksburg Middle School enrollment has reached 925 pupils. Harris' son, in the sixth grade at the school, eats lunch at 10 a.m. because the cafeteria is too small to handle everyone at one time.
And DiSalvo's daughter gets to spend two periods inside the building - gym and band. The other five academic periods are spent in one of the 10 trailers out back.
LENGTH: Medium: 72 linesby CNB