Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 9, 1994 TAG: 9409090088
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Nearly 250 people attended a meeting arranged by advocates of a new high school to demonstrate to Minnix and Supervisors Chairman Lee Eddy that voters support the project.
"I was hoping that the auditorium would be packed," Minnix said. "I know how you feel about it, but not everybody feels the same way."
Organizers of the meeting said it had been hastily arranged. They said the crowd would have been larger if all of the PTAs could have had more time to contact parents.
Minnix, who represents the Cave Spring District, and Eddy, who represents Windsor Hills, helped defeat a proposal for a November referendum on a $30 million bond issue that included $20 million for a new Cave Spring High School.
Minnix opposed the referendum in November because he did not believe there was enough time for voters to be educated about the need for the bond issue.
He said he has seen nothing to change his mind since the Board of Supervisors rejected the bond referendum, 3-2, late last month.
Minnix said it will take a "Herculean effort" to get county voters to approve a bond issue for a new high school even if the advocates have a year to make their case for it.
"Unless you get to work and work hard, it's not going to pass in 1995 or 1996 or whenever," Minnix said. "Some other magisterial districts already think that we [Cave Spring] have too much.."
A $30 million bond issue would require an 8-cent increase in the county's real estate tax rate. "When you say tax increase, it turns some people off," Minnix said.
Minnix said he is committed to having a referendum in November1995 because that would provide enough time to help persuade voters to approve the bond issue.
Eddy left before the meeting ended because he had another commitment, but he explained his reasons for opposing a November referendum. Eddy said he supports a new high school, but he believes that the county would be in a better position to finance it in several years.
Jim McAden, one of the meeting's organizers, said he is worried that the supervisors might approve a proposal for $10 million bond plan for school projects in other sections of the county.
Last month, the supervisors also rejected a $10 million bond issue for a new gymnasium at Northside High School and for major renovations at several schools.
The $30 million plan would have included all of the projects in the $10 million proposal and $20 million for the new high school.
The supervisors could use loans from the Virginia Public School Authority to finance the $10 million plan without having to hold a referendum.
If the supervisors use VPSA funds for these projects, McAden said, the new Cave Spring High might be the only one left in the bond referendum. That would reduce its chance of being approved because voters in the rest of the county would have no incentive to vote for it.
If the supervisors attempt such a move, Minnix said he will oppose it and try to get them to schedule the $30 million bond issue next year.
Terri Langford, who helped arrange the meeting, said that it will take four or five years to plan and build a new high school. If the county waits seven or eight years to begin planning, she said, the school won't be finished for 11 or 12 years.
Several speakers complained that the existing high school is overcrowded. It has an enrollment of 1,200. They said that 400 ninth-graders should be at the high school, but there is no room for them. They are enrolled at Cave Spring and Hidden Valley junior high schools.
Cave Spring High is one of only 10 high schools in the state that do not include ninth-grade students, McAden said.
by CNB