RINER -- Montgomery County officials are considering a first step to allow improvements to happen at Auburn elementary, middle and high schools. A rezoning of the area around the three schools will be necessary because of expansion limits in the present agricultural classification that regulates the property.

The need for school expansion is expected -- and could come sooner than planned because of increasing residential growth in Riner.

"The money for any construction project won't come probably for another five or six years," Dan Berenato, facilities director for Montgomery County schools, told planning commission members during a visit to the school sites Wednesday. "We wanted to find out what fences we had to jump so we could jump them early and get them out of the way."

The first step is the rezoning, which is proposed to change to general business.

"It's really a civic area, not agricultural in any way, but there is no civic zone," Berenato said.

Before the planning commission and county board of supervisors schedule public hearings on the rezoning, probably in August, county officials will hold a community meeting at the Auburn High School auditorium to explain the reasons in July. A date and time have not been officially set.

A feasibility study presented to the school board last month found all three schools could be expanded on the 70-acre site where they are now located off Virginia 8. No specific plans have been drawn up at this point, but all three buildings would remain on the same tract of land.

"If you had to find this much land somewhere else, you'd be outside the village," Berenato said of the Riner site. "We feel that the community is really pushing us to do this."

The older buildings lack air conditioning and will probably need rewiring to accommodate computers and other classroom technology, said Dari Jenkins, county zoning administrator.

Auburn Elementary is the newest of the three schools, having been completed in 1998 behind the high school's stadium.

Auburn Middle originated as an elementary school and is crowded. Berenato said it could be demolished to make way for green space at its existing site, and a new middle school constructed on vacant space behind the community's new rescue squad building.

The high school is now spread over several buildings. Some would require extensive renovations to meet current building codes and school requirements. An expansion and removal of some of the buildings would allow all the students to be housed in one building.

"We don't really know how it will come out until we do the planning," Berenato said.