THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 4, 1995 TAG: 9506040032
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
When Granby High School opened in 1939, it carried a $500,000 price tag. Those days are gone.
Over the next two years, city school officials expect to spend $23.5 million to renovate and enlarge the Colonial-style landmark. The project, set to begin in summer 1996, was partly responsible for a 2-cent property tax rate increase approved last month by City Council.
Monday night, residents can find out what their tax dollars are buying at Granby and also have a chance to shape the final product.
The school is holding a 7 p.m. meeting in the auditorium for parents to discuss the project with school administrators, architects and educational consultants hired to work on it.
Principal Michael Caprio said they will be open to suggestions.
``It's their money, they should have a say,'' Caprio said. ``This is a big deal.''
Caprio said he envisions the ``new'' Granby becoming a model for education reform in high schools of the 21st century.
``I'm not trying to renovate Granby,'' Caprio said, ``I'm trying to restructure it.''
Caprio said the project will have the advantages of a small-school atmosphere yet accommodate 1,800 students.
This will be done by dividing the school into four ``academies,'' a concept growing in popularly and known by educators as a school within a school.
Each wing will serve a specific cluster of students and feature classes in core subjects like math, science, English and social studies as well as administrative offices for assistant principals and guidance counselors. The idea, Caprio said, is to give students the personal attention they would get in a smaller school.
Caprio also brags about the planned computer and science labs, a high-tech media center and classes for art, music and vocational courses.
The renovated school will contain 265,000 square feet of space. That's approximately 70 percent more space than the existing 157,000 square feet. About 115,000 square feet of the existing building, including its distinctive Williamsburg-style facade, will be fused into the project.
The food court alone will be nearly 13,500 square feet, and will be arranged much like fast-food restaurants in a shopping mall, Caprio said.
Cost estimates of the project have escalated the past couple of years from just over $15 million to the current estimate of $23.5 million for construction.
Caprio said he is amazed at the expense of some school-construction items these days.
The wastewater treatment system, for example, specified by government regulations, alone costs $750,000 - more than the building's original construction cost.
Despite the price tag, PTA and school officials say the benefits of the project far outweigh the cost.
``It's just going to be a feather in the cap of Norfolk's school system,'' said Granby PTA President Fleater Allen.
The average age of city schools is 45 years, and real estate agents say many newcomers to Hampton Roads are reluctant to relocate in Norfolk because of the condition of several schools, Allen said.
In lobbying City Council and the School Board for the planned renovation, parents at Granby outlined a litany of complaints: the lighting is lousy, the heating system often falters, the building leaks when it rains, to name a few, Allen said.
``This is going to benefit everybody,'' Allen said. ``It's going to help the community, it's going to help the children, it's just going to enhance the image of Norfolk.'' by CNB