THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 25, 1996 TAG: 9604250397
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: DECISION 96
PART 2: THE ISSUES
SUFFOLK
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Long : 117 lines
One of Cavan Garrett's two sons will attend Northern Shores Elementary when it opens this fall, and Garrett talks excitedly about the school, with its planned technology, art and music labs.
But even as the building rises, Garrett worries: Will the new $7.6 million school, being constructed in response to rapid growth, become a victim of the crowded conditions it was meant to reduce?
Garrett, a lineman with Virginia Power, said until recently he was unaware of the extent of new development that will add some 1,500 homes to the Harbour View section near the school. About 450 of the houses have been built.
Garrett said officials should consider enlarging the 675-student Northern Shores while it's still under construction.
``You know people are going to build, you know they're going to buy, so why wait later, when you know they could get it done cheaper now?'' Garrett said.
For Garrett and a lot of other city residents, Suffolk's unprecedented growth and its impact on the 10,002-student district is a key issue as citizens prepare for the May 7 School Board election. Voters will elect three members to the seven-member board. Two of the contested races - Nansemond and Sleepy Hole - are in high growth areas.
After a decade of snail-paced growth averaging 1 percent to 2 percent a year, school enrollment last year jumped by 500 students, an overall increase of 5 percent. Attendance at some schools increased by double digits, including a 28 percent rise at Florence Bowser Elementary - a school that Northern Shores was meant to replace.
School officials say that Bowser Elementary might have to remain open because of the growth. The new Northern Shores could be at capacity as early as its second year.
School Board members acknowledge that the city has not taken enough steps to prepare. The district has 79 mobile units.
``We went for years - and I mean for years, back to the 1950s - without doing anything at all. Now, it's caught up with us,'' School Board member William L. Whitley said.
The board last fall approved an ambitious 10-year, $105.7 million Capital Improvement Plan, which calls for six new schools and the renovation of two existing schools. The board is seeking an additional $300,000 from the City Council, including $110,900 for computers and other technology.
Many parents say that teachers are doing a pretty good job with what they have. Even so, the growth has been accompanied by a litany of concerns from parents. Among them:
Crowded classes. Parents said teachers in some classrooms are responsible for more than 30 students, resembling something more akin to crowd control than learning. Garrett said there are 32 children in his son's fourth-grade class at Bowser; the year before, there were 23 kids.
``With any kind of disruption or any child who needs additional help, the teacher's attention is drawn to that one child and the rest of the class has to sit and wait,'' said Frances Davidson, whose son attends a fourth-grade class at Mount Zion with about 30 students.
The district plans to hire 21 teachers and 13 teachers' aides in the next school year to accommodate the growth, which has created strains for fourth- and fifth-grade classes particularly. But a shortage of both personnel and space at some schools poses problems for reducing class size, school officials say.
Technology. The enrollment growth has outpaced the district's ability to provide computers and other technology to students, parents said. Davidson said only a few computers are available at Mount Zion. Children in her son's class use them in shifts.
``It just seems like there is not enough funding for basic stuff - like microscopes, they're aren't enough to go around,'' said Anne Shildt, who has six children in the school system. Added Willie Flood, who has a son in Southwestern Elementary: ``There needs to be some kind of way to get computers in each classroom . . . because that's where the year 2000 is taking us.''
School administrators said a committee is helping develop a five-year technology plan to equip all grades with computers and other technology, such as graphing calculators.
Not enough buses. Parents said children on some buses are wedged in three to a seat and sometimes have to stand. Barbara Rodgers, who has a daughter in fifth grade at Bowser, said a neighboring boy who attends John Yeates Middle leaves home early and boards the bus one street over to get a seat.
``Give me a break - he shouldn't have to do that,'' Rodgers said.
School administrators say there's money in the budget to add four or five buses to run routes in high-growth areas.
Mobile classrooms. Currently, 11 of the city's 15 schools rely on mobile units to ease crowding. Elephant's Fork Elementary has the most, at 10.
``As they add these mobile units, they're band-aiding the issue rather than moving ahead and making a permanent solution,'' Davidson said.
The district plans to remove the mobile units as new schools are built. But there's no guarantee they'll disappear.
``Because we're in a growth mode, as long as you've got subdivisions coming, you've got to have a way to deal with them,'' said school spokeswoman Bethanne Bradshaw.
Aging schools. Parents said the growth highlights the years of neglect at many older schools.
Flood had concerns about parity. ``It seems they're spending all the money in the new and growing areas and the taxes are coming from the rural areas,'' he said. ``We pay taxes out here, too, and I don't know where my money is going.''
Flood said he attended Southwestern Elementary - the school his son now attends - and that it should be rebuilt.
Under the school board's capital improvement plan, Southwestern is one of four elementary schools that would be replaced by new construction - in 1998 - if the City Council approves the $8.2 million cost.
``It's a matter of whether we should be preventive or corrective,'' said Charles Christian, who chairs a committee that will advise on the district's needs. ``When you're looking to the future, you're hoping to prevent a 911 situation. But then again, you've got to have the means to put it into place.''
KEYWORDS: COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS PUBLIC JOURNALISM SUFFOLK CITY COUNCIL
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