THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Wednesday, May 17, 1995                TAG: 9505170049
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                     LENGTH: Short :   43 lines

BEACH SCHOOLS TO MOVE FROM FORMER SHOPPING CENTER

Superintendent Sidney L. Faucette on Tuesday announced his plans for moving students and staff out of Celebration Station, a shopping center-turned office complex on Virginia Beach Boulevard.

His plan includes relocating some of the services to Seatack and Linkhorn Park elementary schools, which are being vacated because they are in high-risk zones for Oceana Naval Air Station.

The school system is being forced to leave Celebration Station because City Council did not approve $6.8 million to buy it, and the School Board did not include money in its budget to continue leasing the space.

The building now houses administrative offices, including a parent resource center for special education, and the Literacy Center, a highly successful program for students who have failed the state's sixth-grade Literacy Passport Test.

The School Board gave Faucette the nod to negotiate with the building's owners to move school operations out of the mall by Dec. 1.

Faucette said he planned to relocate the Literacy Center, beginning in September, to the now-vacant Kemps Landing Intermediate School on Kempsville Road. The center will share the building with a new academic magnet school for middle school students.

Faucette said he also would like to see Seatack Elementary become the city's special-education center, housing all the administrative offices and the parent resource center. Faucette said he did not know, however, whether the city and the Navy would OK that idea, since Seatack is in Oceana's crash zone. School Board member Ulysses Van Spiva said he was concerned about the plan.

Faucette said he would use the building for storage, if for nothing else.

Linkhorn Park, which is merely in Oceana's high-noise zone, could be used for the special-education center instead.

Some of the Celebration Station offices would relocate to White Oaks Elementary in December. by CNB