THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 18, 1996 TAG: 9609180446
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 44 lines
School officials told City Council members Tuesday that millions more dollars are needed to meet the school system's building needs.
With debate about a current $3million funding shortage of the Granby High School expansion still unresolved, school officials outlined a $50 million wish list of construction and maintenance needs for five years beginning in 1999.
Included on the list are plans to renovate Norview High and Blair Middle schools and to construct a health careers magnet high school in cooperation with Eastern Virginia Medical School.
And there are millions of dollars worth of maintenance needs that have been delayed because of lack of money, school officials said, including replacing roofs, upgrading electrical service to add technology and replacing some of the 130 aging ``mobile'' classrooms in use.
``We are in a dilemma,'' School Board Chairman Ulysses Turner told council members during an hour-long session meant to increase communication between the board and the council.
Board members said parents are putting increasing pressure on them to respond to maintenance and other capital needs at schools, and that a commitment from the council would help. The needs were projected through 2004.
``We need to start now and look out beyond 1998 and really identify and prioritize what our needs are,'' said board member James Herndon.
Council members made no commitments.
``This is the first time we've seen these numbers and we just need some time to digest them,'' Mayor Paul Fraim said.
The City Council in 1994 approved a five-year, $25 million Capital Improvement Plan for the schools, despite a board request for $50 million. The council later increased funding to $31 million at the board's request, largely to pay for rising costs of the Granby High project. Even so, $3 million more is needed to complete expansion and renovation of the school's dilapidated gym.
Turner on Tuesday asked council members for $1.5 million in each of the next two years to pay for the gym improvements.
Council members also made no commitments on the gym funding, but Fraim and two other council members said last month they hoped to find the money.
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK SCHOOLS BUDGET by CNB