ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, October 25, 1996 TAG: 9610250070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
Third-grader Alisha Minor loves to go to the computer lab at Mount Pleasant Elementary School because she can practice her skills. She gets so excited that she is almost oblivious to her classmates, who are squeezed together in the small room with no windows.
"Yes, I like it when we come here," Alisha said, as she worked on a computer drill one morning this week.
But Alisha doesn't like one thing: The Roanoke County school's computer lab is so small that only half of her class can go there at a time.
The lab is in a converted storage room. It has space for only 12 computers. The children have to be careful to avoid bumping elbows.
"This was the only room that was available, so we had to use it," said Jennifer Jones, the school's computer teacher.
There are other space problems, too, at the 62-year-old school, where enrollment has risen by 17 percent in the past eight years.
The teachers' lunchroom has been converted into a classroom. Art classes are taught in the Mount Pleasant Branch Library, which is in the school. A workroom for teachers and volunteers has been converted into a special education classroom. And storage cabinets and a refrigerator are in the halls because there is no space anywhere else.
"We have a growing population here because it's a nice place to live," said Principal Ellen Walton. "We've had to make changes to try to meet the need for space."
Since she came to Mount Pleasant in 1988, the school's enrollment has increased from 320 to 375. New subdivisions are springing up in the school's East Roanoke County attendance zone.
The school has been expanded several times since the original structure was built in 1934, but there have been no significant improvements since 1983.
Walton talks about the space crunch reluctantly because she is afraid some people might get the impression that the building conditions and limitations are hurting the quality of education at the school.
"I don't want our physical needs to make people think that things aren't working here," she said. "We have a can-do attitude here, a staff that makes things work, and I'm proud of what we're doing."
Walton said the two-story brick school is an architectural gem and an integral part of the neighborhood that should be preserved. It is surrounded by two churches, a county park with ball fields, a cemetery, several houses and a nearby store with the mountains in the background.
The landscape reminds Walton of a Norman Rockwell painting. "I love this building and the setting," she said.
Inside the school, the halls and classrooms are decorated with the children's drawings, sketches, essays, poems and other assignments.
Walton encourages teachers to display the children's work because it boosts their self-esteem and shows what's happening in the school.
Despite the upbeat atmosphere and brightly colored rooms, she said, the school needs more space, more parking and an upgraded electrical system so it can accommodate more technology.
The county's failed school bond referendum this year had included $800,000 for the construction of six classrooms, parking space and electrical improvements at the school.
The county is now studying the need for improvements at all of its 28 schools. A 22-member committee of community leaders and residents, which is visiting the schools as part of the study and will rank the needs in priority, toured Mount Pleasant last week.
School officials have estimated that all of the projects could cost up to $120million. The Board of Supervisors will decide whether there will be another referendum to fund part of the projects.
Walton won't know how Mount Pleasant's needs stack up against the rest of the county schools until the committee finishes its work.
Fourth-graders Lynda McKay and Brian McKee wanted to talk about their "book-bag reviews" this week instead of the school's space problems. They showed off a bag of objects they had made or bought that were related to books they had read.
In the cafeteria, some children studied a large map of the United States that has been painted on a wall, complete with the names of the states and their capitals. Other walls bear a map of the world and the multiplication tables, painted in large pencil-shaped designs.
Walton said the maps and multiplication tables are part of the school's emphasis on visual learning and an effort to make the cafeteria an extended classroom as the children have lunch.
Because the cafeteria is too small to seat all of the children at one time, the classes go to lunch at five-minute intervals, beginning at 10:30 in the morning. They can stay for 30 minutes.
Regardless of the decision on the school's space needs, Walton said, she wants to keep the branch library in the building because it enhances Mount Pleasant as a community school and attracts residents who might not otherwise visit.
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: NHAT MEYER/Staff. Third-grader Alisha Minor, 8,by CNBpractices her keyboard skills in the computer room at Mount Pleasant
Elementary School. Minor's teacher, Jennifer Jones, has to split the
class in half, to 12, to fit the children into the tiny computer
classroom.