THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 28, 1995 TAG: 9504270122
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
The 26-year-old Virginia Beach planetarium needs a $200,000 renovation to bring it up to date, director Herbert D. Teuscher insists.
And, he adds, there are tentative plans afoot to build another - at an estimated cost of $500,000 - to handle increased student load.
A new planetarium has been talked up earlier this year by Teuscher, but it hasn't been included in a revised six-year Capital Improvement Program recently proposed by the school administration.
Teuscher may get the planetarium facelift he seeks. It could be part of plans to upgrade a number of the city's middle schools.
The planetarium is an adjunct to Plaza Middle School, 3080 S. Lynnhaven Road.
If the education budget is approved by the City Council May 9, money could be available to supply the existing structure with a new console, a new sound system, new automated special effects and other refurbishing work.
The second planetarium project, however, may have to wait another year to even be included in the Capital Improvement Program.
Recent budget cutbacks and an ongoing tug-of-war with the City Council over funding for building and educational programs has probably placed a new planetarium at the end of a long priority list.
As envisioned by Teuscher, a new planetarium would be best suited as an addition to a new high school or magnet school in the center of the city.
The existing planetarium opened in 1969 with Teuscher on the school payroll as director.
Then, he said, the city's school population was 20,000. It since has grown to more than 70,000.
``We have programs for every grade level and right now we serve a maximum of 23,000,'' he said. ``The refurbishing is needed. It's costly, but I feel it's worth it because we've served about a half a million people.''
The planetarium draws from the entire Virginia Beach public school system, as well as students from private and public schools throughout Hampton Roads. They are bused in each year to see and hear Teuscher put on programs dealing with celestial and earthly phenomena.
The facility, which seats about 120, offers year-round programs to the public free of charge. It is closed in July.
In a pamphlet explaining the planetarium's value to the city, Teuscher had this to say:
``Planetariums were intended from their inception to serve as multimedia theaters for a wide variety of educational and entertaining programs. . . the need for planetariums as frontline artillery in the battle for science literacy has never been greater.'' ILLUSTRATION: The existing planetarium, an adjunct to Plaza Middle School on
S. Lynnhaven Road, opened in 1969 with Herbert D. Teuscher as
director. Teuscher says the need to refurbish the old planetarium
and to build a new one are a result of a student population that has
grown from 20,000 to more than 70,000.
Staff photo by CHARLIE MEADS
SHOW TIMES
The Virginia Beach City Public Schools Planetarium is open to the
public at 7 p.m. Tuesdays. A different program is offered each
month, except July when it is closed. ``Cosmic Whispers,'' a program
about radio telescopes, is scheduled for May. Reservations are
requested by calling 431-4067 between 7:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday
through Friday.
by CNB