ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, September 28, 1996 TAG: 9609300025
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on October 1, 1996.
Heidi Bernard is a former employee of the Montgomery County school
system. Her status was incorrectly reported in a story in Saturday's New
River Current about a school building forum.
About 50 people came to a school-building forum Thursday night, and about that many suggestions, questions and ideas emerged.
The forum, sponsored by the Town County Citizen Partnership, brought familiar faces and newcomers together to discuss Montgomery County's plan to build three new schools.
Parents, teachers, residents, School Board and Board of Supervisor members from around the county split into groups to discuss what they want - and don't want - in new schools.
Most placed keeping neighborhood schools first on their list. For Christiansburg, that means keeping the present middle school site, said Gary Harkrader, a partnership member. Moving the school away from the heart of town would spread out Christiansburg even more than it already is, he said.
"What we're losing in Christiansburg is community and the quality of life that goes with it," he said.
The supervisors are still negotiating the purchase of sites for a new middle school in Christiansburg and a new high school in Shawsville. Those deliberations have not been made public. Both boards are trying to decide where to build a new middle school in Blacksburg.
Many at the forum said schools shouldn't consolidate, as Riner and Bethel elementary schools will do once the new one opens in Riner two years from now.
"When I see a school move out of town, the parents' relationships to the school changes, the kids don't have the same ownership," said school system employee Heidi Bernard.
But parent George Morgan said his main concern for his elementary school-age daughter was what goes on inside the school.
"As long as the site is safe once she gets there, it doesn't matter to me if she goes by bus or walks or where it is," he said. "It's a matter of the principals and teachers and the curriculum she's taught."
"What we have to do is look at the whole picture," said the Rev. John Price. "If the location can somehow add learning," then that should be considered.
Ann Hess, partnership chairwoman, said the ideas will be given to the county School Board and Board of Supervisors for their joint meeting at 7 p.m. Monday. That session, at the Christiansburg Middle School library, will focus on the building plan, school sites and how to fund the projects.
Another citizens' forum is scheduled for Oct. 17 at the Christiansburg headquarters of the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library.
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