Thursday, December 09, 2004
School officials discuss giving up middle school property
In January, the Montgomery County School Board may relinquish the old Blacksburg Middle School, if certain conditions are met.
Administrators are drafting a resolution for the school board to review at its first meeting next year. The resolution could clear the way for development of the property.
This fall, Blacksburg Town Council members and county supervisors discussed the idea of building a shopping mall and luxury housing development on the site, although most school board members were left in the dark about the proposals.
Since March 2003, several supervisors have pressured the school board to sell the building. For three years, the board has sought an educational or civic use for the building, which closed to Montgomery County students in 2002 and is residentially zoned.
Tuesday, school board chairwoman Tacy Newell-Foutz said the board is leasing space to community groups or allowing them to use it for free at a cost to the school system of $135,000 a year because "there is no viable offer" for the building."
Interim superintendent Jim Sellers put the issue on the board's meeting agenda Tuesday because he had the impression from a Nov. 29 joint meeting between the school board and supervisors that school board members "had a desire to get out of the economic development work."
Conditions of the resolution may include finding a new location for Blacksburg High and Middle school sports fields and space for Price's Fork Elementary School students when the board has money to renovate the old building or construct a new school.
School board member Doug Eckel said $135,000 a year did not seem to be an unreasonable price to pay to ensure extra space. But he also said it was a "pretty good idea" to lay out a resolution with three or four stipulations.
"Answer these and we're out of the real estate business, and you can do with it what you want," he said.
