www.roanoke.com

Developers want it. Community groups want to influence what happens to it. Officials want to make money off it.

That's the old Blacksburg Middle School, of course.

But a former school superintendent wants to keep it as a school, albeit one the likes of which Montgomery County hasn't experienced yet.

Alan Kim | Roanoke Times

Arnold Saari says there's still an instructional need for the school building.

Arnold Saari served as superintendent of Montgomery County Schools from 1974 to 1983.

He wants to see the Montgomery County School Board keep the 20 acres of prime downtown Blacksburg real estate and refurbish the old school building there for a countywide vocational and technical center.

The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors and some school board members want to sell it to a developer and put that money into the school system budget.

Saari oversaw the opening of a similar vocational center in Ashland County, Ohio, in 1972. And it's still going strong, he said.

Now it's time, in his view, that Montgomery County created its own vocational school to serve the entire county. Saari has been talking it up with community groups, at public meetings and with officials.

Alan Kim | Roanoke Times

The Bruins' home field is one of the points of contention surrounding the debate over the fate of the former Blacksburg Middle School property.

There's money for vocational education, he argues, especially given support for that sector from former Gov. Mark Warner and Gov. Tim Kaine.

Saari said he wonders what his grandchildren will do to make a living if vocational education isn't stressed by the county school board.

"We can't all be programmers for Web sites," he said.

In Saari's vision, about 400 students from the county's high schools would attend the vocational center. There they would have all their classes, including English, math, social studies and other core curriculum classes.

The school system would have the space at the old school to offer vocational and technical classes that aren't being offered now. Students would then travel by bus to their home schools for extracurricular activities, Saari said.

Adults could also attend the center at night to learn new skills to get better paying jobs.

Saari said he believes local companies and New River Community College would be interested in collaborating on such a center.

This concept fits snugly into an idea discussed at a December meeting of the Blacksburg Townscape Committee that included several architects.

For six hours the group discussed different uses for the old school site, including a housing development, an arts and cultural center and a "multigenerational center" that would combine senior housing, a day care center, underground parking, a vocational center for Montgomery County public school students and a European-style market square with restaurants, cafes and retail.

The committee plans to do a presentation on the concepts to officials soon. But there's no word yet on when or to which public body the committee might appeal.

Saari is open to multiple uses alongside a vocational center. But he said he wants to make sure such a concept doesn't crowd out or water down the effort to establish the center.

Penny Franklin, new chairwoman of the Montgomery County School Board, heard Saari's proposal for the first time Wednesday.

While she called herself a big supporter of vocational education, Franklin wasn't sold on the idea for the old Blacksburg Middle School.

Blacksburg sits on one end of the county, not in the center, she said. She suggested that the old Christiansburg Middle School might be a better place for such a center.

And finding the money for such a center was another concern.

"It would be another school ... it's all we can do to get enough teachers and administrators" for existing schools, Franklin said.

Franklin pointed to a $1.6 million grant from Congress recently presented to Christiansburg Institute. That money will help start the process to build a vocational center at the last remaining building of the all-black secondary and trades school that closed in 1966.

"Maybe we need to be collaborating with that," Franklin said.

There may be no rush on the question of what to do with the old middle school.

To sell the property, county officials say, a new Blacksburg High School stadium must be built to replace Bill Brown Stadium at the old middle school, which is still being used for Bruins football games.

Before the new stadium can be built, council must approve the project. The school's application for a new stadium off Prices Fork Road is right now stuck in committee.