| Anna L. Mallory

anna.mallory@roanoke.com, 381-8627

CHRISTIANSBURG -- The Montgomery County School Board will wait until December to act on a resolution to surplus the old Blacksburg Middle School so language in the resolution can be amended.

At their meeting Tuesday night, board members reviewed a draft of the resolution that would release the 20 acres of downtown property to the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors.

That resolution, which was drafted in January, says the board wants to be involved with planning the future of the site and any possible sale of the land.

But board members said Tuesday they are not real estate agents and directed administrators to strike that passage.

"I just want to say, 'It's yours.' We are done with it as a school district," said Vice Chairman Penny Franklin. "I don't know what the benefit for us would be other than, quite frankly, going round and round with the Blacksburg Town Council."

What to do with the property has been debated for a decade. The town has discussed hosting a design competition to determine potential uses once the school board relinquishes control of the land, and the both the town and county put up money to support the competition. However, those plans have been halted.

The school was vacated in 2002, when the new middle school opened on Prices Fork Road. In 2005, the school board approved a resolution saying it would let go of the land -- if it wasn't needed -- once a new high school stadium was built and land was secured for two new elementary schools, one in Elliston and one in Prices Fork.

Land for a new school in Prices Fork is now in hand through a land swap between the county and Virginia Tech and its foundation.

In the deal, county supervisors spent $1 million to purchase 16 acres near Plantation Road in Blacksburg from the Virginia Tech Foundation. The county then swapped that land for 20 acres of university-owned property on the south end of Prices Fork Road, near the current Price's Fork Elementary School.

The county plans to build a 600-student elementary school to replace a 55-year-old building.

County spokeswoman Ruth Richey said the supervisors would likely take up their discussion of what to do with the property soon.

"It's really been off the table for a little more than a year now," she said. "They're going to have to look at the possible uses of the building."

Both the school board and supervisors are scheduled to meet Nov. 30 for their annual joint meeting.

The property could be a topic, but it's unlikely, said school board Chairman Wendell Jones.