ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 26, 1996 TAG: 9602260070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
CAVE SPRING HIGH SCHOOL is packed to the walls with students. Classes are held in every nook and cranny officials can find. But is it time for a new building?
The halls tell you Cave Spring High School is hurting for space, even if you don't look into the classrooms, offices or storage areas.
Students bump into each other as they walk between classes, open their lockers to get books, or stop to talk with friends.
It's worst before school begins and at the end of the day, because most of the 1,250 students are in the halls at those times. But the narrow halls are still packed every time the bell rings.
"Here you can't walk to class without getting bumped," said David Carson, a sophomore. "It's even more cramped than at Cave Spring Junior, where it's bad."
Junior Sara Nicolai's schedule allows her to leave early most afternoons, but some days she has to stay until all students are dismissed.
"It's tough trying to get out of here in the afternoon, when everybody is in the halls," she said. "Everybody is rushing to get out, and they're packed together."
To avoid the crunch, some students go outside to walk between the various sections of the Roanoke County school when they change classes.
The space squeeze is one of the main reasons that school officials say a new high school is needed to accommodate the growing enrollment and to house the ninth grade in Southwest County. Ninth-graders attend Cave Spring and Hidden Valley junior highs because there is no room for them at the high school.
On April 2, county voters will cast ballots on a $37.4 million bond referendum, most of which - $33.6 million - would go for a new high school on Merriman Road across from Penn Forest Elementary School.
Cave Spring High's design creates bottlenecks in the main hall because it is shaped like a hexagon. The hall encircles the main offices, library and some classrooms. Side halls lead to additions that were constructed after the school was built in 1968.
The space crunch is not limited to hallways. Many classrooms and science labs are too small. Some classrooms have been divided into two and three smaller rooms with thin partitions for special education classes.
Principal Martha Cobble said the walls are not soundproof, and voices can be heard sometimes in adjoining rooms. But the school has no choice, because it needs rooms for special education classes, she said.
Some science labs don't have space for computers or for storing equipment for student experiments. Rebecca Ross, chairwoman of the school's science department, said she keeps some equipment in an old bathroom and other places because her anatomy and biology lab is so cramped.
"We've got a big space problem. I've got 20 students in here and I'm crunched," Ross said.
Her lab does not have hot water because it was originally designed as a classroom. She gets hot water from other labs in buckets.
Some musical instruments are stored on the floor or on shelves at the rear of the band room because there isn't enough space in closets.
"We don't have any way to secure instruments," said Barry Tucker, band director. "We are using practice rooms to store some equipment, and you see some instruments lying around at the back of the room."
The band has more than 200 members. When they assemble in the band room, many have to sit on the floor because there aren't enough seats.
"It's so crowded, I can't walk from the front of the room to the back," Tucker said.
Music teachers have to use the auditorium's stage for some classes.
But band members and teachers take pride in the school's music program, Tucker said. "We've made it work even though we're cramped."
Cobble said school officials and parents have tried to avoid complaining about the hardships. Some Cave Spring parents think many voters don't know about the overcrowding, because few people have made an issue of it.
To provide needed facilities, school officials have mastered the art of conversion.
nA storage room has been converted into a social studies classroom. It has no outside windows and is at ground level, but it serves the purpose.
nA storage area in a basement has been converted into a weight room for the athletes. Heating pipes are exposed in the ceiling, which is so low that tall athletes have to bend over. Students have to go outside the building to get to the weight room.
nA classroom was converted into a computer lab, because there was no other place for computers. The roof has leaked and damaged some equipment. Stains can be seen on the ceiling.
The school's administrative and guidance offices are cramped with filing cabinets. Cobble doesn't have a conference room for her meetings with parents, teachers and students. "I have to find whatever room that's available. Often I use the conference room in the career center."
Cobble, principal for four years, is experienced with space problems in Southwest County schools. She was principal at overcrowded Cave Spring Junior for four years before coming to the high school.
Because of the crunch, the high school cafeteria doubles as a home room for several classes in the morning and as a study hall when students are not eating there.
Although the cafeteria is rated as adequate, almost every seat is taken during the lunch periods.
School and engineering consultants have rated Cave Spring High as inadequate or semiadequate in 14 of 16 areas, from the auditorium to classrooms to the library. The cafeteria and the gymnasium are rated as adequate.
Students complain that the school's lockers are not tall enough to hold a coat. The halls are lined with two rows of lockers, one above the other, on each side.
"It's really only half of a locker, because it's so short. And there's always someone with a locker above yours, opening and closing his locker at the same time you are," said Bevin Swisher, a sophomore. "It gets crowded, and the halls are always full."
Unlike the county's other high schools, Cave Spring does not have its own football stadium. It shares a field with Cave Spring Junior, Hidden Valley Junior and the county Parks and Recreation Department.
Cave Spring High has less space per student than the national and state averages for high schools. At the national level, high schools have an average of 150 to 200 square feet per student; the state figure is 130 to 170. Cave Spring has 127 square feet per student.
Cave Spring is the only Roanoke County high school - and one of only 10 in the state - that does not house ninth-graders. If the school could accommodate 410 ninth-graders at Cave Spring and Hidden Valley junior highs, it would have an enrollment of 1,660.
Consultants estimate the high school will have an enrollment of 1,848 by 2000 and 1,914 by 2004 if it houses ninth-graders. The bond referendum includes funds for a 1,900-student school.
Even if ninth-graders are kept at Cave Spring and Hidden Valley junior highs, the high school will have an enrollment of 1,452 by 2004.
If a new school is built, Cave Spring High will be converted into a 750-student middle school. Consultants said it would be adequate for a student body that size.
Having ninth-graders at separate schools creates problems for younger students who want to take courses at the high school. The 20 ninth-graders who are bused to the high school daily for classes lose one period of instruction time during the bus ride.
"We don't think it's in the best interests of the students to lose instruction time because of travel. It also creates administrative problems," Cobble said.
Southwest County ninth-graders don't have access to high school counselors and broader academic choices that are available to other ninth-graders in the county.
Sarah Balzer, a ninth-grader at Cave Spring Junior, said the arrangement causes some students to feel that they don't have a school they can call their own.
Balzer takes an advanced biology course at the high school, but she can't participate in clubs or other activities there. And she has to miss some class and extracurricular activities at the junior high.
Housing ninth-graders at separate schools also causes problems for Cave Spring's athletic teams. Because ninth-graders on the teams must be bused to the high school, the practices start later in the afternoon, she said.
Consultants said it would be difficult to expand the school because of its design and location in a residential area. Three additions have been made to the school, which give it a boxlike appearance. The school backs up to houses. A street and drainage ditch block expansion on two other sides.
A new school is the best solution to the space crunch, consultants said. And the students said a new school can't come too soon.
"Some classes aren't bad, but the halls and other areas are bad," said Seth Gunn, a sophomore. "We're too crowded."
LENGTH: Long : 166 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: LAURA M. KLEINHENZ/Staff. 1. Students at Cave Springby CNBHigh School make their way through the crowded, narrow halls between
classes. The congestion also makes it difficult to get into lockers,
students say. Come April 2, county voters will cast ballots on a
$37.4 million bond referendum, most of which - $33.6 million - would
go for a new high school on Merriman Road across from Penn Forest
Elementary School. 2. Seniors Eric Walrond and Julie Hartman talk to
Cave Spring High School Principal Martha Cobble in the cramped
confines of the guidance counselor's office. color. 3. Trash cans
are needed in this computer lab to catch water leaks at Cave Spring
High School.