THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 6, 1996 TAG: 9610040209
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 111 lines
LET'S SEE, Suffolk:
We've got physical education classes doing calisthenics up there on the stage of the school cafeteria-auditorium while other students eat lunch - no room in the gymnasium.
We've got special-education students being taught and receiving therapy and counseling in school hallways - no private rooms.
We've got art and music teachers working from carts they push around their schools for lack of classrooms. Auditoriums that can't seat all of a school's students for lack of seats. High schoolers forced to take study halls instead of technology classes for lack of laboratory space.
We've got guidance counselors working out of closets, classes held in libraries and locker rooms and special-education classrooms without space for the needed equipment.
Mainly, we've got some 2,300 students housed in more than 90 portable classrooms outside their schools because there's no room for them in the buildings. This includes more than a third of all elementary students. This includes eight portables first set up as a temporary measure at Forest Glen Middle - in 1972.
This is the picture of a rapidly growing school system - the Suffolk Public Schools, presented Wednesday in a report to the City Council and the School Board by the Blue Ribbon Committee. The committee's 11 members, appointed by City Council a year ago and chaired by retired teacher, coach and professor Charles O. Christian, studied education-facility needs in the city for nine months - 400 hours on average per member - and made recommendations for a batch of speeded-up projects.
``The old woman in the shoe, who doesn't know what to do with all those children? Well, she's moved to Suffolk, and we have to educate those children,'' said Rosalind Cutchins, committee member and parent.
The city manager's office in the next two months will come up with some cost figures to go with the Blue Ribbon Committee's proposals, and then the City Council and School Board will further refine the plan before trying to sell it to tax-paying residents, the panels agreed Wednesday.
Elected officials and residents have a lot to consider.
Everyone in and out of the school system knows that it has grown by 1,100 students or 11.5 percent in two years, to 10,702. Growth is expected only to increase.
The Blue Ribbon Committee recommended that the city start 11 renovation or building projects in the next three years - seven more than the School Board scheduled in its $105.7 million, 10-year building plan approved last year.
An early sign of some of the roadblocks to the plan, even before money is discussed, came the morning of the presentation. Residents upset about the recommended school closings began calling Councilman Curtis R. Milteer after reading about them in the newspaper. Milteer said they - and he - worried about the city moving away from the idea of community schools, particularly in the more-rural southern half of the city.
Others quickly raised the issue of money, saying there are other city needs as well. Blue Ribbon Committee members lobbied for their proposals, calling them necessary.
``It's not overly ambitious, and the time to act is now,'' said Linda Dickens.
`` `We're growing' is an understatement,'' later added Brenda Galen, who has a daughter at Nansemond River High. ``We've already grown.''
Said Councilman J. Samuel Carter at the end of the committee's presentation: ``Our duty now is to find the money to do what you want. Maybe we can, and maybe we can't.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Buses wait outside Southwestern Elementary. The 68-year-old school
may close in 1998.
Graphic
COMMITTEE FINDINGS
Among the Blue Ribbon Committee's findings and recommendations:
Elephant's Fork, Kilby Shores and Nansemond Parkway elementary
schools, although overcrowded - 24 portable classrooms among them -
can't easily be expanded or renovated.
Two new elementary schools already scheduled to be built by 1998
in the central and southern sections of Suffolk will handle some of
their load, along with the already begun renovation of Oakland
Elementary.
The committee recommends expanding and completely renovating the
104-year-old Florence Bowser Elementary, which this year is housing
the displaced Oakland Elementary program, by 1998.
It would need additional classrooms and a gym, but it's in the
faster-growing northern sector, has plenty of land and the building
is structurally sound.
Renovate 31-year-old John Yeates Middle by 1998. Its classrooms -
particularly special-education - are too small, its bathrooms and
locker rooms need to be fixed up, and there isn't enough
computer-technology space.
Move up by three years, to 1999, the scheduled completion of a
new middle school to help with projected overcrowding at Yeats.
Renovate 43-year-old Booker T. Washington and expand and renovate
71-year-old Driver elementary schools to handle special-education
programs and more students, both by 1999.
Do the same for 31-year-old John F. Kennedy Middle by the next
year. All three are in good locations with good land.
Renovate and expand the twin, 6-year-old high schools, Lakeland
and Nansemond River, by 1999, to accomodate growing student
populations.
Both should add auxiliary gyms and technology-education centers.
Postpone scheduled building of a new high school by three years, to
2005.
In 1998, close 68-year-old Southwestern and 35-year-old Robertson
elementary schools in the southern part of city. Both are crowded,
but both would need a lot of renovation, and they're out of the way
for many students.
The new elementary school in the southern section would pick up
the displaced students, the committee said.
KEYWORDS: EDUCATION by CNB