Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 18, 1993 TAG: 9311200252
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Assistant Superintendent Jim Sellers said as principal of the school five years ago, he reluctantly converted a tech-ed lab into much-needed classroom space.
With minor renovations, however, the current cannery space can be converted into a lab. The large room in the school building now used as a lab can be renovated into two classrooms, he said.
Blacksburg Middle School Principal Gary McCoy said Wednesday he hopes the work could be completed by next fall. Depending on enrollment, the new classroom space would probably be used for two new sixth-grade classes.
McCoy expects next fall's sixth-grade class to include approximately 50 more pupils than the current eighth-grade class, a 20 percent increase. Blacksburg Middle School's enrollment is 825.
The 8-1 decision to consolidate the Blacksburg cannery with one at Auburn High School in Riner is a blow to gardeners and cannery advocates, who use the facility in the summer and fall to preserve produce. It also goes against the wishes of at least two of the seven men on the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors.
But School Board members, while recognizing the cannery's importance to some people, said the need to find more classroom space at the overcrowded school was their top priority.
For Vice Chairman Robert C. Goncz of Christiansburg, it came down to whether a trailer - or ``relocatable classroom'' in education jargon - is a better place to learn than a classroom of brick and mortar.
``I don't think it is,'' he said.
Board member Barry Worth of Christiansburg proposed consolidating the canneries for one year while seeking money from the Board of Supervisors to renovate a 42-year-old boiler that serves the cannery. But his idea went nowhere, and he was the sole vote against closing the cannery.
The decision could mean the School Board could have a day of reckoning with the Montgomery Board of Supervisors early next year over cannery funding.
Board members want the money for the Riner cannery, which some Auburn students use as part of their school activities, put into a separate account in next year's budget.
That way the supervisors can either increase or cut that one item accordingly. Though supervisors appropriate the money for school operations, they cannot dictate the School Board's spending decisions.
School officials anticipate adding hours - and therefore personnel costs - to the Riner facility next year to accommodate Blacksburg-area residents.
by CNB