THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 20, 1997 TAG: 9702200055
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: 70 lines
Build a new school, Councilman S. Chris Jones said.
No, renovate old vacant ones instead, countered Councilman Curtis R. Milteer.
I need more information, Vice Mayor Charles F. Brown fumed.
Let us build, let us renovate, let us do something to accommodate the students we know are coming, pleaded the School Board. Time's running out.
In the end Wednesday, everyone left an afternoon workshop frustrated at an impasse that left the School Board with no decision on its proposed building plan and no money to start on any projects to handle its surging growth.
The second meeting between the panels turned testy at times as the needs of the bursting-at-the-seams school system ran head-on into the political realities of minimizing the tax impact on the Suffolk voters who put both bodies into office.
The two panels met to discuss again the board's request for $127.7 million in construction funds over the next five years for new and renovated schools. Schools Superintendent Joyce H. Trump and school architects presented the new figures for larger schools the council requested last month - for up to 1,000 elementary students, which education experts generally agree is too big.
The council and the board agreed on one thing: Classroom space is the most immediate need, even over bringing older schools up to modern specifications for technology under state education guidelines and access by students with disabilities as required by law.
Jones proposed providing enough money for at least the top School Board priority: a new central elementary school to be built by the 1998-99 school year - which could range from $8.8 million for a 670-student facility like Northern Shores Elementary, which opened last fall, to $11.6 million for a 1,000-student model. Only Councilman Leroy Bennett voted with him.
School officials have found a potential school site, and said they need money so they can begin negotiating to buy it and begin design work immediately so the school will be built by September 1998.
School officials said they hoped the council would approve money for land and design work from a fund of leftover School Board money returned to the council and held aside for such uses. The council did approve those expenditures at its Wednesday night meeting.
At the afternoon session, the council peppered school officials with questions and comments.
Jones said building new schools provides the most new classroom space for the buck. Milteer argued that it's cheaper to renovate, so he would only support that, such as using the long-vacant Suffolk and East Suffolk high schools.
``It doesn't matter how long they've been closed,'' Milteer said. ``Those schools were built for education, and they're sound buildings.''
``I wish you all would get away from 675 pupils'' as a school standard, J. Samuel Carter said angrily, leaning toward the board members across the table. ``We're growing too fast,'' and need build bigger schools.
Virginia Beach found that wasn't the best way to go, said board member William L. Whitley.
``I'm not worried about Virginia Beach,'' Carter shot back. ``I'm worried about Suffolk.''
``We're worried about education,'' Whitley retorted.
School Board Vice Chairman Calvin W. Jones told the council: ``You know what we're going to do. . . . We're going to look at year-round schools'' and other alternatives. The School Board appointed a committee last week to look at drastic program or scheduling changes to handle its enrollment.
Added Whitley, ``I know one thing we can't do is hang a sign in front of these schools saying: `I'm sorry. We're full. Try Isle of Wight or Portsmouth.' ''
KEYWORDS: SUFFOLK CITY COUNCIL
SUFFOLK SCHOOL BOARD