ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 4, 1996 TAG: 9604040052
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Above
CAVE SPRING HIGH was a downbeat spot the day after Roanoke County voters said no to replacing the overcrowded school.
The halls at Cave Spring High still were crowded Wednesday, a day after Roanoke County voters rejected a bond issue for a new school. There still wasn't room for ninth-graders. And the science labs still were cramped as students conducted experiments.
The students said they were disappointed and frustrated, but not surprised, by the outcome of the bond referendum that killed their hopes for a larger school.
"I think some people don't want to hear about the space problems," sophomore Elizabeth Barrett said.
"The vote showed that people who aren't involved don't seem to understand or care. The problems won't go away just because the bond issue is over."
Another student, Lindsay Cannon, thought Cave Spring had been treated unfairly by voters in other areas of the county who don't seem interested in the space problems.
"We have voted for schools in other areas," Cannon said. "They have nicer schools. They could have helped us out, but they didn't."
Sophomore Ziyad Khateeb agreed: "I think some other areas might have been jealous that we were going to get a nice new school. I think the $33.6million price might have upset some people."
Martha Cobble, principal at Cave Spring High, believes some voters based their decision on inaccurate information that confused the issue. She said the teachers and students have accepted the voters' decision and will try to make the best of the facilities.
"The community expects a lot from us, and we will continue to move forward," Cobble said, "even though we're at a disadvantage in many ways."
Robbie Niday, another student, said it makes more sense to build the 1,900-student school now, because "the cost will just keep going up."
But it seems unlikely a new school will be built soon; school officials said they won't pursue the idea now that the bond issue has been defeated.
Instead, several members of the School Board and Board of Supervisors said they expect the county to consider improvements at Cave Spring High, along with the installation of air conditioning and renovations at Cave Spring Junior High.
The construction of a new high school would have enabled ninth-graders to attend Cave Spring High. The plan would have converted the existing high school to a middle school to house students now at Cave Spring Junior, which would have been closed.
The supervisors had refused to provide funds to air-condition and renovate Cave Spring Junior pending the referendum.
Supervisors' Chairman Bob Johnson and Cave Spring Supervisor Fuzzy Minnix said Wednesday they expect the board will now vote for the Cave Spring Junior improvements. Minnix said he also will press for construction of additional classrooms and other improvements to ease overcrowding at the high school.
"I think we'll now be faced with spending $6 million to $8 million on older facilities to deal with the problems," Minnix said. But this won't provide space to house Southwest County ninth-graders with the upper grades as is done in other areas of the county.
County and school officials are hoping the bond proposal's defeat won't be a major setback for schools or affect the recruitment of industries, but they said it will cause a change in plans for addressing school needs.
Real estate agents said the outcome could raise doubts about the county's commitment to education and make it less attractive to potential buyers looking for homes near good schools.
"It might send a message that the county would rather not send. It could have a negative impact, unless the potential buyers understand all of the issues behind the vote," said Steve Hoover, a real estate broker. He said several factors, including concern about the proposed site for the new school, seemed to have contributed to the defeat.
"Roanoke County has a history of supporting education, but this could send a negative message that might not be entirely accurate," Hoover said.
Tim Garrison, another real estate agent, said the referendum results will "create doubts and raise questions" among people considering moving to Roanoke County.
"The issue of major concern is that the ninth-graders are not in high school. That is not standard in the state," Garrison said. "With the growth in Southwest County, there is no immediate fix to that problem."
But Johnson and Windsor Hills Supervisor Lee Eddy said they don't think the defeat of the referendum will undermine the school system's reputation.
"We will move forward with quality schools, but we will have to take a different track on solving the space problems," Johnson said.
"I don't see it as having a long-term impact on schools," Eddy said. "I think county taxpayers will still support a well-thought-out and balanced plan for schools."
Exit interviews at the polls Tuesday showed that many elderly people voted against the bond issue because they were upset about taxes, rising real estate assessments and high water bills; some said they voted no because they didn't see a benefit for themselves.
The demographics of the county, once viewed as a suburban community for young couples with children, are changing. The number of elderly is increasing, which some county officials believe was a factor in the defeat of the referendum - although unrest over taxes extended beyond the elderly.
Based on the latest census data, 13.5 percent of the county's population is 65 or over, compared with the state average of 10.7 percent. The median age of county residents is 37.3, which is higher than the state's median age of 32.6 and Roanoke's 35.2.
The support for the bonds in Southwest County, 65 percent, was not as large as some officials had hoped, but Minnix said it would have been difficult to offset the crushing defeat in the rest of the county.
The county totals were 9,334 to 7,094 - 57 percent to 43 percent. The bonds were defeated by 4-1 margins in the Catawba, Hollins and Vinton magisterial districts.
"We couldn't have made it up, even if we had gotten 75 percent in Southwest County," Minnix said. "I had hoped we would get some help from Vinton and Hollins, but we didn't."
In addition to voters' concerns about taxes and the geographic distribution of the bond funds, Eddy believes the national deterioration of voter trust in government was a factor
County and school officials said the results showed the strategy of packaging funds for smaller projects in several areas with a large school in one area didn't work. They said a more balanced package will probably be needed.
If the bond issue had included many needed school projects in different areas, it would have been in the range of $60 million to $70 million, School Board member Tom Leggette said. But the Board of Supervisors said it wouldn't approve a bond issue of that size, so the School Board had to reduce it to $37.4 million, Leggette said.
Besides $2.8 million for finishing the Northside High gym project and $1 million for technology at all schools, the School Board included $1 million for equipment for Glenvar Middle School and $800,000 for renovation of Mount Pleasant Elementary School.
But that strategy apparently didn't influence Glenvar and Mount Pleasant voters. In Glenvar, the referendum was defeated 710-101; in Mount Pleasant, the vote was 387-100 against the bonds.
LENGTH: Long : 136 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshots) 1. Cannon\``We have voted for schools inby CNBother areas. They have nicer schools. They could have helped us out,
but they didn't.'' 2. Barrett
``The vote showed that people who aren't involved don't seem to
understand or care. The problems won't go away just because the bond
issue is over.'' color.