ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 29, 1996 TAG: 9602290047
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
The Montgomery County School Board won't take 20 acres for an answer.
Tuesday night, after a two-hour meeting behind closed doors, the board voted unanimously to go back to the Board of Supervisors with its initial 40-acre proposal for a new elementary school in Riner. Member David Moore was not at the meeting.
The board originally planned to meet for its biannual review of Superintendent Herman Bartlett's job performance, but postponed that executive session to Monday.
Instead, the board spent the night discussing how to respond to a decision the Board of Supervisors made just a day before.
Monday, the supervisors reversed a decision to condemn a 40-acre plot held in trust by Central Fidelity Bank for Ronald Salmons, whose family has owned the land since 1932. Salmons and about 40 other Riner residents stood to protest the condemnation during Monday's meeting.
After the supervisors voted 4-3 to withdraw the condemnation, which had offered the trust $2,763 per acre, they agreed to ask county and school staff to negotiate a smaller, 20-acre plot of land from the same farm.
Tuesday night, a visibly frustrated School Board said 20 acres was not "educationally sound."
The board repeatedly cited the Facility Use-Space Study, a long-range plan developed by parents and teachers from around the county to handle increasing enrollment.
The first phase of the study included a new elementary school in Riner and three other schools to be built in the next five years. The second and third phases of the study would convert the current elementary school to a middle school, and build a new high school on the new land.
That plan would be jeopardized, board members argued, if they only acquired 20 acres now.
"What if in five years this land is developed or sold? We've missed that window of opportunity," said Chairwoman Annette Perkins.
If that happens, added Vice Chairman Barry Worth, "we end up with another Bethel [Elementary]: a school on the side of a highway with no where to go. We had to put trailers on the side of the hill over there."
Regardless of the long-term plans, Kim Ritchie, the School Board attorney, said 20 acres may not be enough.
Currently, the Riner campus - made up of the elementary, middle and high schools - takes up 29 acres. An additional 20 acres, making a total of 49, would not fulfill state recommendations for land space, Ritchie said.
Superintendent Herman Bartlett said a 40-acre addition would meet minimum state recommendations for the three-school campus.
The board agreed to send back the 40-acre request, this time with an explanation of the long-range plans for Riner and the state recommendations for acreage. Perkins planned to announce that intention at a Board of Supervisors budget work session Wednesday night.
Before the School Board meeting adjourned, member Bernie Jortner reminded the board to address the supervisors "in the most conciliatory manner possible.
"I don't think the people of this community want to see us at each other's throats. We need to show them good government."
|By LISA APPLEGATE| |STAFF WRITER|
CHRISTIANSBURG - The Montgomery County School Board won't take 20 acres for an answer.
Tuesday night, after a two-hour meeting behind closed doors, the board voted unanimously to go back to the Board of Supervisors with its initial 40-acre proposal for a new elementary school in Riner. Member David Moore was not at the meeting.
The board originally planned to meet for its biannual review of Superintendent Herman Bartlett's job performance, but postponed that executive session to Monday.
Instead, the board spent the night discussing how to respond to a decision the Board of Supervisors made just a day before.
Monday, the supervisors reversed a decision to condemn a 40-acre plot held in trust by Central Fidelity Bank for Ronald Salmons, whose family has owned the land since 1932. Salmons and about 40 other Riner residents stood to protest the condemnation during Monday's meeting.
After the supervisors voted 4-3 to withdraw the condemnation, which had offered the trust $2,763 per acre, they agreed to ask county and school staff to negotiate a smaller, 20-acre plot of land from the same farm.
Tuesday night, a visibly frustrated School Board said 20 acres was not "educationally sound."
The board repeatedly cited the Facility Use-Space Study, a long-range plan developed by parents and teachers from around the county to handle increasing enrollment.
The first phase of the study included a new elementary school in Riner and three other schools to be built in the next five years. The second and third phases of the study would convert the current elementary school to a middle school, and build a new high school on the new land.
That plan would be jeopardized, board members argued, if they only acquired 20 acres now.
"What if in five years this land is developed or sold? We've missed that window of opportunity," said Chairwoman Annette Perkins.
If that happens, added Vice Chairman Barry Worth, "we end up with another Bethel [Elementary]: a school on the side of a highway with no where to go. We had to put trailers on the side of the hill over there."
Regardless of the long-term plans, Kim Ritchie, the School Board attorney, said 20 acres may not be enough.
Currently, the Riner campus - made up of the elementary, middle and high schools - takes up 29 acres. An additional 20 acres, making a total of 49, would not fulfill state recommendations for land space, Ritchie said.
Superintendent Herman Bartlett said a 40-acre addition would meet minimum state recommendations for the three-school campus.
The board agreed to send back the 40-acre request, this time with an explanation of the long-range plans for Riner and the state recommendations for acreage. Perkins planned to announce that intention at a Board of Supervisors budget work session Wednesday night.
Before the School Board meeting adjourned, member Bernie Jortner reminded the board to address the supervisors "in the most conciliatory manner possible.
"I don't think the people of this community want to see us at each other's throats. We need to show them good government."
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