THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 30, 1995 TAG: 9508290125
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SERIES: BACK TO SCHOOL
SOURCE: BY ALLISON T. WILLIAMS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CARRSVILLE LENGTH: Long : 167 lines
FOR MORE THAN 70 YEARS, yellow school buses traveled country roads delivering children to school in Carrsville.
This year, the buses will rumble past their old destination as they carry Carrsville students to Windsor Elementary.
But it's only temporary.
Next year, those same buses will help carry the community into the future, when they unload students at the front door of the brand new Carrsville Elementary School.
And students like fourth-grader Chrissy Story were already looking ahead last week.
``I'll return to a new school with all of my old friends,'' she said.
The doors of the old school, with its classic, white columns, closed for the last time in June, and the building was demolished July 17.
Generations of southern Isle of Wight County families learned reading, writing and arithmetic in the building. Since opening in 1924, the school had served students for all of their school years. In 1955, it became an elementary school only, serving students in grades one through seven.
``Carrsville is growing, and this elementary school will help meet the educational needs of children in this end of the county,'' School Board Chairman Richard Peerey said recently.
Peerey, minister at Beaver Dam Baptist Church, lives in the community, and both of his children attended Carrsville Elementary.
``For the first time in the county's history, all our elementary schools will be on the same playing field,'' Peerey said. ``This will bring them all to where they need to be in order to meet the educational needs of our children.''
Work on the $2.8 million construction project has already begun. Assistant Superintendent Dr. Alexander Decker says the new building is expected to be complete by July and ready for occupancy by August 1996.
As schools across the county prepare to open next week, there is little more than a foundation to the future Carrsville Elementary building.
``But everything is right on schedule so far,'' said Brian Camden, a senior construction manager with Powell Construction Management, the company that has overseen the construction of the county's newest schools in Carrollton and Windsor.
The one-story, brick school will be similar in style to the county's other new elementary school, Carrollton. The Carrsville school will have 14 carpeted classrooms, an administration complex and a library filled with natural light from skylights.
All classrooms will be equipped with the technical infrastructure necessary to carry the school into the next century, Camden said. Televisions, which teachers can program to pick up lessons fed into the school via satellite, will be in every classroom. As technology continues to expand, the equipment can be upgraded.
``The school is sort of a mixture of Colonial and traditional architectural styles,'' Camden said. ``With the circular drive and four big, white columns, the front of the school is going to be impressive. It's going to be a nice-looking building.''
Rebuilding Carrsville Elementary School will finish the second phase of the School Board's long-range capital improvement plan.
The other part of the second phase - extensive renovation to Hardy Elementary's interior - will be ready for school to open this year, Decker said.
The first phase was completed last year with the addition of an auditorium at Smithfield High School. Other facets of phase I included building Carrollton Elementary and Windsor Middle/High schools.
The School Board is studying whether to build a new elementary school in Windsor as a third phase of the long-term construction plan.
``It's taken the School Board and Board of Supervisors a long time to get on the same track,'' Peerey said. ``But I see the future looking very promising for continued cooperation between the two boards. If the county is going to continue to grow, we have to move forward in the same direction.''
Although the original Carrsville building has been torn down, Peerey said neither the school nor the community's spirit has been destroyed.
``The building could only last so long,'' he said. ``As honorable a heritage as it had given us, it lived a noble life and died a noble death. We didn't tear the school down - we just demolished the building. The school never stops happening. You can't beat down a spirit that took more than 70 years of coming together as a community to form.''
But the spirit may have been wounded somewhat on that hot, summer day in July, when the old school was razed. As bulldozers moved toward the familiar building, several former students and teachers were among the small crowd of spectators who watched - some with tears in their eyes.
Joel Bradshaw, who graduated from the Carrsville High in 1949, still remembers winning the state basketball and baseball championships and riding his bicycle almost two miles to school.
The retired farmer, who served on the Isle of Wight Board of Supervisors, was among the group who turned out to watch the demolition of his alma mater.
``I hated to see it go but we needed more room. We needed to progress,'' Bradshaw said afterward. ``Things are shaping up real good down there now.''
Luther Butler, a 59-year-old retired Union Camp employee, spent most of his academic career at the Carrsville school. Butler was a member of the class of 1954, the last to graduate while it was still a secondary school.
Hallways in the old building were rich in memories of mischief that Butler said he hopes will carry over into the new school.
Butler recalled when the school was heated by coal stoves lit by janitors on early winter mornings. Occasionally, when he and a buddy wanted to escape class, they would sneak into the classroom early and throw a spoonful of sulfur into the fire.
``The whole room would cloud up with yellow smoke,'' Butler said, chuckling. ``There wouldn't be any more classes in there all day.''
Butler's favorite teacher at Carrsville, 92-year-old Elizabeth Duke, retired in 1969 after teaching 43 years - 26 of them at Carrsville.
Duke and her sister, Louise, a former Carrsville student and retired Suffolk teacher, have lived at a Franklin retirement center, The Village at Woods Edge, since 1991.
``I was so afraid they were going to do away with any school in Carrsville,'' Elizabeth Duke said. ``I know it won't be the same, but they are going to have a nice school there. I think it's very important for communities to have their own schools because it brings people together.''
Duke recalled that when the school was built, community members were asked to supply most of the furnishings.
``I remember, when they had to put seats in the auditorium, they asked people in the community to pay for the seats. I remember one man joked that he was going to give two seats, even though he could only sit in one.''
Gertrude Barrett, a 90-year-old retired dietitian from the county school system who lives near the Carrsville school site, also turned out to watch the demolition. Although she never worked or had children who attended that school, she recalls with pleasure many of the Carrsville students as they were growing up.
``I always did have a spot in my heart for the children who went there,'' she said. ``It gave me sort of a sad feeling to see the school destroyed.
``But being sort of aged myself, I realize all things have to go after a while, to make room for better things.''
Carrsville's 208 students will pack Windsor Elementary this school year, but there will be no more students than before Windsor Middle School opened last fall.
Eliminating the Carrsville school was discussed by some county residents, but not by the School Board or Superintendent York, Peerey said.
``Closing that school completely has never be on the table in the six years I've been on the board,'' he said.
Debbie Story, PTA president at Carrsville, said she was sad to see the old school go.
``I've been by there just to look at least once a week. I know the new school will be wonderful - a modern facility with more rooms, better classrooms, updated.''
``It will be a little funny,'' said Chrissy Story, the Carrsville fourth-grader. ``It's like we will be going right past my school and not even noticing it. It makes me a little sad, but I'm OK.
``I'm going to have a lot of classmates, and I'll make a lot of new friends.''
And next year, she'll have a new school. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
The Carrsville School, opened in 1924, closed for the last time in
June, and was demolished July 17. Generations of Isle of Wight
County families had learned reading, writing and arithmetic in the
building.
Assistant Superintendent Dr. Alexander Decker says the new building
is expected to be complete by July and ready for occupancy by August
1996.
Gertrude Barrett, a 90-year-old retired dietitian from the county
school system who lives near the Carrsville school site, turned out
to watch the demolition and took home a piece of the debris.
Joel Bradshaw, who graduated from Carrsville High in 1949, still
remembers winning the state basketball and baseball championships.
The retired farmer watched the demolition of his alma mater.
by CNB