THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 2, 1994 TAG: 9412020601
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ISLE OF WIGHT LENGTH: Short : 44 lines
Responding to an unexpectedly fast rise in enrollment, the School Board on Thursday voted unanimously to build a new elementary school in Windsor and to convert the old one into a school just for sixth-graders.
The board's aim was to free up space at the Windsor Middle/High School, which, in its first year, already is at capacity.
Building a new elementary school rather than renovating the existing one - as had been planned earlier - would add $5.4 million to the second phase of the board's capital improvement plan, said Alexander Decker, assistant superintendent.
Decker said the new school could open in fall 1996 along with a new elementary school planned for the Carrsville area. If the plan wins approval and funding from the county Board of Supervisors, the new school would be the fourth to open in Isle of Wight in as many years.
``None of us asked for this,'' board Chairman Richard L. Peerey said. ``We planned well, hired two consulting firms. This board meeting is being held four to five years earlier than we expected.''
A new Windsor elementary school was one of four options that Decker presented to the board for dealing with the growing population in the southern end of the county.
School Superintendent Jane York said turning the old Windsor elementary school into a center for 175 sixth-graders ``would buy us time for a middle school in that zone.'' And because the old elementary school is so close to the new middle/high school, she said, the schools could easily share staffs.
But coping with a growing population in the southern end of the county may be just the beginning of the problem, Decker told the board.
Carrollton Elementary, which opened in 1993, already is at its 740-student capacity. With a regional sewer line coming into the northern end of the county in 1996, Decker said, the board should expect Isle of Wight's population to continue to grow.
``I can't tell you how many people I've shown around the county in the last few months,'' board member Linda Morgan said. by CNB