The Roanoke Times l File 2009

Bent Mountain Elementary school will close at the end of the year. Roanoke County Supervisor Ed Elswick and his neighbors are researching what it would take to start a religious school there.

If Ed Elswick has his way, the closing of Bent Mountain Elementary School won't mean that there will no longer be a school in the rural enclave in southern Roanoke County.

The county's school board voted this week to close the century-old facility and bus its 50 students down the mountain to Back Creek Elementary, beginning next school year.

Elswick, who was first elected to his Windsor Hills seat on the county board of supervisors in November, has been a vocal opponent of shuttering the school, which he has called the community's only county-sponsored amenity.

Now that the decision has been made, however, he is championing converting the building into a community center and creating an alternative school.

Superintendent Lorraine Lange confirmed this week that "we have offered the building to the board of supervisors."

Elswick and a small group of his Bent Mountain neighbors are researching what it would take to start a religious school there now, he said.

"None of us have kids in the school," he said. "We're all older people doing this because of our mountain. We're a very close community."

He acknowledged, however, that he has some concern that Bent Mountain parents have lost some of their motivation after losing a yearlong battle to save the institution. "They no longer have the fire in the belly, but I think we can rekindle it," he said.

Elswick said his group has been talking with Renewanation, a Roanoke-based organization that touts tuition-free Christian education, about what it would take to start a school.

"I would love to see a charter school on top of Bent Mountain, but who knows if that would happen," said David Blanton, Renewanation's vice president of operations.

Elswick said he was rebuffed by school officials when he suggested a charter school, which is why he is now pushing for a religious school.

Tim Spencer, the attorney for the Roanoke School Board, told its members this week that Renewanation expressed interest in leasing classroom space for a summer school program at Raleigh Court Elementary, one of two schools the city school board closed during last year's budget crisis.

Spencer advised the city board at a workshop Wednesday morning to proceed with caution as it considers leasing space, because, he said, if one religious group is allowed then all religious groups must be afforded the same access.

School board member Courtney Penn downplayed that notion, however, by saying, "This is not Philadelphia or New York. Generally what is going to come to us is going to be the values we share in this community."

On Bent Mountain, in addition to the religious school, Elswick said he would like to see the building turned over to the community for a variety of uses.

Diana Rosapepe, the county's director of library services, said she expects the Bent Mountain branch to remain open. But she noted that there has been a small decline in use over the past year for the first time since its hours were expanded in 2005.

And she noted that the 738 library card holders on Bent Mountain used other library branches about half the time.

Elswick is confident his neighbors will use the old school if they have control of it.

"The way I picture it -- and everything is not solid yet -- we'd have some parks and recreation [department] involvement, but essentially the community would be in charge," he said.

He'd like to see used exercise equipment in the gym, which could also be used for bluegrass or other concerts. The cafeteria would provide a place for periodic fish fries or other fundraising dinners.

"I do not see any increase in expenses to the county, and I think we can raise money so we can have some kind of surplus," he said.

More than that, he said, "it would promote community involvement, helping each other out, old-fashioned values."

The school division and the county have a history of sharing surplus facilities. Most recently the county's public safety department used the former Southview Elementary School as its headquarters. When the department outgrew the facility on Peters Creek Road and moved to a new built space, the school board sold the Southview property to the state medical examiner's office for $2 million.

Of the Bent Mountain building, Lange said, "If the board of supervisors wants to use it, they can. If they don't, we will winterize it."

And there always is the chance the school will reopen in the future, she said.

cody.lowe@roanoke.com 981-3425

courtney.cutright@roanoke.com 981-3345