DATE: Friday, September 12, 1997            TAG: 9709120570

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A9   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ALETA PAYNE, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   76 lines

SCHOOLS BRACE FOR BIG IMPACT ONE-FOURTH WOULD NEED TO BE MOVED OR NOISE-SHIELDED.

One out of four schools in the city would need to be moved or cushioned against potential noise problems if Oceana's crash and noise zones are expanded to accommodate more jets, according to the Navy.

And that doesn't include the need for additional teachers and classrooms to educate more than 2,000 new students, primarily of elementary school age, who are expected to come with Oceana's expansion.

As of late Thursday, school officials had not seen a copy of the Navy's draft Environmental Impact Statement report and were limiting their comments.

``We're not going to react until we have something to react to,'' said Kathy Bulman, assistant superintendent for media and communications development.

The report also concluded that Brookwood and Plaza elementary schools would be within the jet base's potential crash area.

Robert R. Matthias, assistant to Virginia Beach's city manager, emphasized that ``the two schools are in the zone by basically the width of a line on a map.'' Matthias said that ``some minor changes in the operation procedures at Oceana'' might move the schools out of the zone.

Barring that, however, the city could face the expense of relocating the two schools, which sit side by side near Lynnhaven Mall.

Along with Brookwood and Plaza, 20 other Beach schools are in a high-noise zone for the base, which means they may require work to diminish sound within those buildings. In addition, Chesapeake's Butts Road Intermediate School lies in the high-noise zone of Fentress Airfield.

Tony Arnold, director of facilities planning and construction for the Beach school district, said noise abatement might include upgrading windows and placing additional insulation in the roofs. Arnold said he had no idea at this point what such work would cost.

``A lot of the elements of sound attenuation are inherent in new schools anyway,'' Arnold said. ``It really depends on the condition of each building.''

The study's most startling conclusion was that Linkhorn Park Elementary School is not in the new potential crash zone. The city agreed to relocate Linkhorn Park in 1994, which at the time was calculated to be in the crash zone, as a show of good faith and its desire for Oceana to remain open and to expand.

Now, with half the work done on the $12 million building on First Colonial Road and construction ahead of schedule, it appears the move was unnecessary. Seatack Elementary School, which the city also agreed to relocate in 1994, is also no longer considered to be in the crash zone although its playground is.

Arnold said the school division would move ahead with plans to relocate Seatack to land on Birdneck Road across from Birdneck Elementary School.

``As far as we're concerned, the drawings are being finished up and it will be bid together with New Castle (an elementary school scheduled to open in 1999) in the spring,'' Arnold said.

As for the old Linkhorn Park building once it becomes vacant, School Board members have discussed using it as temporary housing for students from Cooke Elementary School next year. City officials recently agreed to fund the rebuilding of Cooke, the Beach's oldest school. Beyond that, school officials declined to speculate on how the old Linkhorn Park school might be used.

The division has been preparing for a jump in enrollment based on conversations with the Navy, according to Ken Lumpkin, the school district's demographer. The division had adjusted its own figures on increased enrollment from Oceana's plans to about 1,700 based on projections from the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, but 300 more students can be accommodated, he said.

The 2,000 students, enough to fill a new school, shouldn't present a problem as long as growth occurs where district officials are predicting it will - the areas served by Christopher Farms Elementary and Corporate Landing Middle schools, both new this year, and other schools in those portions of the city where new construction is under way.

``We haven't been caught off guard by this,'' Lumpkin said. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

FOR SCHOOLS

[For complete graphic, please see microfilm] KEYWORDS: OCEANA EXPANSION: WHAT IT WOULD MEAN

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu