THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 19, 1996 TAG: 9609190398
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B9 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: ROANOKE LENGTH: 87 lines
Lt. Gov. Donald S. Beyer Jr. toured Cave Spring Junior High on Wednesday to get a firsthand look at typical school overcrowding in Virginia. His timing was perfect.
At the 10:20 a.m. class change, Beyer was nearly stampeded by students jostling elbow-to-elbow, toe-to-heel through the halls.
Beyer came with a small entourage of local officials and a briefcase full of statistics to support the work of a commission studying school-building needs.
But Beyer said, ``I don't think any statistics can express what it's like to be almost run over by a whole bunch of six- and seventh-graders, and understand that it happens every 50 minutes all day long.''
Beyer is chairman of the Commission on Educational Infrastructure. The 23 legislators, educators and business people on the panel started work in July and will make recommendations to the 1997 General Assembly.
Beyer said Cave Spring, in a rapidly expanding section of Roanoke County, is a good example of space challenges facing state schools.
There are 920 students in the school, which was built in 1956 to hold 780 students. The lack of cafeteria seats requires the first of four lunch shifts to begin at 10:20, whether the kids are hungry or not. The last shift eats at 1:20.
``By then they're probably starving,'' Beyer said. ``I'd hate to see what it's like to teach those kids from 12:30 to 1:20.''
Beyer cited a report by the state Department of Education that said more than 63 percent of the state's school buildings need major renovation or replacement.
The report also said local tax funds are inadequate to meet the projected debt service required to upgrade and replace existing schools, let alone build the 7,900 new classrooms needed over the next five years to accommodate increasing enrollments.
The General Assembly this year funded the first two years of a five-year plan to provide one computer for every five students. But the education department report found that 72 percent of the schools lack the electrical outlets needed to plug in the computers and 57 percent are too small to accommodate them.
At Cave Spring, Beyer learned, most rooms have only two electrical outlets.
On a bulletin board at Cave Spring, one of a dozen letters to Beyer came from Jeff Burchett, who wrote, ``Dear Mr. Beyer, our school has any number of building code violations. Perhaps someone of your stature could have it inspected.''
The commission is reviewing a proposal to beef up the Virginia Literary Fund, which collects revenue from court-imposed fines and helps localities borrow at below-market interest rates to finance school construction and renovation.
The General Assembly diverted more than $376 million from the Literary Fund during the early 1990s to balance the budget. About $60 million is available this year, and projects totaling $114 million already are on the waiting list.
But Cave Spring was able to borrow $1.6 million from the fund this year to pay for classroom renovations and new electrical, lighting and air conditioning systems.
``We need to stop the diversions from the literary fund,'' Beyer said. ILLUSTRATION: [Side Bar]
PROPOSALS
Lt. Gov. Donald S. Beyer Jr. said Tuesday that the Commission on
Educational Infrastructure is reviewing the following proposals to
help local governments find ways to pay for school construction and
renovation:
Increase the $800 million debt ceiling of the Virginia Public
School Authority to allow more construction projects. The limit was
increased from $500 million in 1995, but Beyer said another hike
would not harm the state's bond rating.
Increase funding for school construction available through the
Virginia Literary Fund. The revenue comes from court-imposed fines
and helps localities borrow at below-market interest rates to
finance school construction and renovation.
Include a local government's debt service when determining the
amount of money it gets from the state. Beyer said many local school
boards spend more than 11 percent of their total budgets on loans
for school construction.
Establish an equipment trust fund for grades kindergarten through
12 similar to the trust fund that the General Assembly established
for colleges and universities to pay for computer equipment and
software.
Include Virginia's school technology goals in the Standards of
Quality that all districts must meet.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA SCHOOLS ENROLLMENT by CNB