
DATE: Sunday, September 28, 1997            TAG: 9709260410

SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER      PAGE: 06   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: COVER STORY 

SOURCE: BY LEWIS KRAUSKOPF, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  113 lines

BUDGETING FOR BUILDING LAST CHANCE FOR PUBLIC COMMENT ON THIS YEAR'S CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN IS MONDAY NIGHT.

THIS MONTH, only three years after it opened, Oscar F. Smith High School began the school year with eight portable classrooms next to its faculty parking lot.

About 1,812 students enrolled at the school - 212 students over its capacity.

Thus, included in this year's proposed Capital Improvement Plan are plans to have a $5.4 million addition to Oscar Smith ready by 2000 - six years after the school was built.

Interestingly, building an addition to Oscar Smith was something the school system had apparently anticipated, even planned for.

The Oscar Smith situation is one example of the tricky nature of planning for growth that the school system grapples with every year.

``You just try and put the puzzle there together,'' said School Board member James J. Wheaton.

The public will have its last chance to comment on the puzzle's pieces Monday night - the board's final public hearing on the CIP, a blueprint for the school's planned capital projects.

Planning for schools demands juggling many factors. Predictions of how many new families will settle in Chesapeake. The number of schools - with price tags in the tens of millions - the city can afford. When the number of portable classrooms becomes detrimental to respective schools.

And there are unforeseen factors as well. Local, state and federal laws this decade - such as those involving special education, technological initiatives and class size - have affected planning.

``We sort of have to look into the crystal ball a little bit,'' said board member Jeffery A. Rowland.

The case of Oscar Smith High illustrates some of this balancing act. Rowland and Wheaton say that the board knew when it was built that the school would need an addition in the near future. In fact, all high schools are built in anticipation of tacking on another structure.

Why? The flexibility allows the school system to guard against overbuilding. Both Rowland and Wheaton agree that having some degree of portables is preferable to having half-filled schools. By building schools with the option to expand, board members say, they can avoid needless spending.

For now, high schools are built with the ability to expand, and the system is considering similar addition options for middle and elementary schools as well, Rowland said.

In the meantime, however, Oscar Smith High must make do with some portable classrooms. But that doesn't bother principal Janet Andrejco, who says she hasn't received many complaints about the trailers.

``You hear comments, but they're nice spacious rooms. . . . They haven't posed us a problem,'' she said.

Although the number of portables is an indicator of crowding in schools, it may not be the best indicator. Crowding problems may be seen more by the use of a school's core facilities, including gyms, cafeterias, bathrooms and libraries, said Paige Stutz, a planner with school system.

Some symptoms of this overcrowding include very early or late lunch hours - such as 9:30 a.m. - and overstressed bathrooms, Stutz said.

``With portables you're still maintaining your student-teacher ratio.

You're essentially adding a classroom, not a permanent classroom space,'' Stutz said. ``It's harder to add to core facilities than it is to add classrooms.''

Within the past six years, new laws have caused the school system to rethink its planning.

Take the Americans With Disabilities Act. Since it went into effect in 1992, federal regulations have forced state and local governments to ensure that people with disabilities are not excluded from services because buildings are inaccessible.

Having to comply with ADA requirements has increased the cost of school construction by about 5 percent, according to the CIP.

``And when you're talking about a $15 to 20 million school, that can add up,'' Rowland said.

A number of state and federal mandates focusing on smaller class sizes have ``shrunk'' the schools' capacity, according to the CIP. The result is portables popping up sooner alongside buildings.

Thurgood Marshall Elementary, for example, was originally designed to hold 800 students when it opened in 1995. Now, however, the school's capacity is 575 students.

On the other hand, some government initiatives have helped the schools meet enrollment needs by curtailing the building of new homes. In 1994, the City Council enacted its levels-of-service policy that calls for a rezoning application to be rejected if it pushed nearby schools over 120 percent capacity.

The policy's impact has allowed the schools to catch up with their building, Rowland said, for which he was thankful.

``There's no way you can put up the bricks and mortar as fast as people move in,'' he said.

In the end, planning becomes an equation weighing numbers, needs and variables that the system can only hope results in the right answer.

``We have to put all those things in the mix and make sure we don't build schools that are going to sit empty,'' Wheaton said. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by CHARLIE MEADS

Having some degree of portables is preferable to having half-filled

schools, say School Board members.

Graphics

All graphics by The Virginian-Pilot

CHESAPEAKE PORTABLE CLASSROOMS

PORTABLE CLASSROOMS SINCE 1989-1990

PROPOSED PROJECTS

SCHOOL OPENINGS SINCE 1991

[For a complete copy of all graphics and text, please see

microfilm.]