
DATE: Tuesday, October 28, 1997             TAG: 9710280292
SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Decision '97 

SOURCE: BY LEDYARD KING, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:  143 lines

CROWDED, DECAYING SCHOOLS GET LITTLE ATTENTION FROM CANDIDATES RELIEF UNLIKELY TO COME FROM EITHER BEYER OR GILMORE, DESPITE NEEDS.

In the pre-dawn hours of sultry fall and spring weekdays, Norview High School head custodian Clifton Lamb turns on the phalanx of fans on the third floor.

Even before the sun cracks the horizon and starts roasting the school, which has no air conditioning, Lamb can determine how sticky the science labs and math classrooms will get.

If it gets hot enough, the classes will be moved to the first-floor cafeteria, where as many as six teachers and their students must share a lunchroom half the size of a football field. Luckier teen-agers might find themselves in the library, where ceiling tiles have been known to land on unsuspecting souls. At least there's air conditioning.

``It's an unhealthy learning environment,'' concedes Marjorie Stealey, principal of this 45-year-old brick institution that sometimes doubles as an oven. ``You can't tell me great teaching is going on.''

Antiquated science labs, decaying libraries and stuffy classrooms aren't Norview's problem alone. Too much wear and not enough space is a combination plaguing schools from Virginia Beach to Winchester, from Alexandria to Wise.

And the $4.1 billion cities and counties will spend over the next five years rebuilding, rewiring and expanding schools is only about half of what they need.

But don't expect Virginia's next governor to solve the state's building squeeze. Neither Republican James S. Gilmore III nor Democrat Donald S. Beyer Jr. plans to commit a single additional dollar of state revenue toward school construction if elected.

This despite a 1996 survey of schools by the state Department of Education that unearthed some alarming figures:

Nearly two of every three public schools in Virginia need major renovation or replacement.

Nearly half are so crowded they use portable classrooms.

Almost three-fourths cannot accommodate today's technology due to a lack of electrical outlets.

One in five harbors potential hazards, such as radon, lead, asbestos, poor air quality or underground fuel tanks.

For Beyer and Gilmore, there are better ways to spend the state's money: a personal property tax cut for car owners or college scholarships are among the most expensive examples.

In fact, their platforms to improve public education only will strain further the hobbled infrastructure of existing schools.

Virginia's former attorney general, Gilmore wants to add 4,000 elementary school teachers during the next four years to reduce class size at every school. He doesn't believe even the most cramped schools will reject his offer.

``I have never found one principal who has said to me: `Gee, I'm sorry, I don't have the classroom space, don't send me the teachers,' '' Gilmore said. ``In fact, I have found the principals have a very can-do attitude. And their attitude is: `You send me the teachers, it's a matter of scheduling, I'll get it done. I'll make things happen.' ''

Beyer's proposal includes expanding pre-school programs, hiring more teachers for elementary schools with impoverished students and removing disruptive children from the classroom. While those programs wouldn't consume as much space as Gilmore's initiative, schools still would have to find extra room.

Nevertheless, Beyer, the state's lieutenant governor, said state money for school buildings is not among his priorities.

``In the array of things that we must do to make our schools the best of the nation, school infrastructure is not in the first five. It may not be in the first seven,'' he said. ``Talk to people in the schools. What's the No. 1 thing they say they need in the classroom? Air conditioning. Did we have a lousy system of education in the first 200 years in Virginia because we didn't have air conditioning?''

Then he adds: ``Yeah, we do have schools that are falling down, we do have a lot of schools in trailers. It's a need that must be addressed.''

When Louise Luxford Elementary opened in 1961, the Virginia Beach school was more than equipped to handle its load of students.

In 36 years - except for the addition of a new gymnasium several years ago - little has changed physically. But everything else has: Teachers are required to instruct smaller classes; classrooms have been converted to computer labs; the number of office staff, counselors and nonacademic employees has mushroomed.

All of which has forced Principal Lee Capwell to improvise. Supply closets are temporarily transformed into offices. Lunch is provided to students in constant shifts. A former classroom has been split into four smaller rooms each accommodating a necessary function: a clinic, a teachers lounge, a conference room and a teachers office that's also used to instruct special groups of two or three students.

``You have to be creative,'' Capwell said. ``When you're in an old building, it takes a lot of creativity.''

At schools like Norview and Luxford, the lack of space will be less an issue than the age of buildings.

It's already proven an issue for Luxford last year when a ceiling beam in a classroom fell because water seeped through the roof. The school now has a new roof.

Enrollment in Hampton Roads, much like the rest of Virginia, is expected to grow in measured and modest terms. Over the next five years, the number of students in the state's public schools is projected to grow from 1,104,524 this year to 1,123,840 by 2001-02.

Norfolk, Virginia Beach and Portsmouth are all anticipating an enrollment drop, while Suffolk and Chesapeake expect modest gains.

Neither Gilmore nor Beyer is completely ignoring the issue of school construction.

Both support dedicating the entire $105 million state Literary Fund for low-interest loans to build or renovate schools across Virginia. The fund, which includes money from traffic fines, has been raided in recent years to help cover the state's payments to its employee retirement system.

School divisions also can borrow through the Virginia Public School Authority, which issues about $150 million in bonds annually.

But both those sources fall far short.

The Commission on Educational Infrastructure, which Beyer chaired, concluded that Virginia's 135 local school divisions will need about $4 billion more than they'll be able to raise from 1996 to 2001.

``These are staggering figures, presenting enormous, but not insurmountable, obstacles,'' he wrote to political leaders as part of the finished report last year.

Beyer does go one step further than Gilmore. He said he'd favor expanding the authority of local governments to tax themselves for school construction.

Gilmore, who believes a considerable portion of people's income should stay in their own pockets, has opposed expanding local taxing authority.

And cities and counties already have the power to put bond issues before the voters, but many have not done so for fear they'll be rejected at the polls.

Beyer believes the state can help shape strategy to solve the problem over the long term, not just dole out money to solve the problem temporarily.

``What I hear more clamor from local governments about is not `Write me a one-time check,' but rather, `Help me find the structural solution to the issue of how local governments can meet their infrastructure needs.' '' ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

IAN MARTIN/The Virginian-Pilot

Large fans circulate air through the halls and classrooms at Norview

High in Norfolk, one of the state's aging schools that need money

for upgrades and renovations.

Color Photos

Neither Democrat Donald S. Beyer Jr., left, nor his Republican

opponent, James S. Gilmore III, right, has promised to fund school

construction if elected governor next week. KEYWORDS: OLD SCHOOLS FUNDING ELECTION CANDIDATE

GUBERNATORIAL RACE VIRGINIA ISSUE