Roanoke County schools Superintendent Lorraine Lange said she plans to make a recommendation to the school board Thursday about where to house Cave Spring Middle School students displaced by next year's proposed demolition and rebuilding project.

Her plan is to transfer the sixth- and seventh-grade students to Hidden Valley Middle School and to move the eighth-graders to Cave Spring High School for the 2011-12 school year while the new school is constructed.

Design plans will be finalized in coming weeks, but school board members are leaning toward keeping the existing auditorium and gymnasium and renovating those spaces. Construction is anticipated to start as soon as the school year ends in June.

Parents will have the opportunity to share input with the board at Thursday's meeting, which will be held at 7 p.m. at the school administration building at 5937 Cove Road, and again Sept. 23 and Oct. 14.

Lange also said Tuesday that the school board received no proposals for the use of the former Bent Mountain Elementary School. The school closed in June after nearly a century of educating students.

At least two community groups expressed interest in leasing the space, but neither submitted an application by the Aug. 30 deadline.

Closing the school, which had an enrollment of about 50 students last school year, will save the division more than $500,000.

-- Courtney Cutright