Trejbal: Funding a new Blacksburg High School
A way out of the high school corner
Christian Trejbal
Trejbal is a Roanoke Times editorial writer. He is stationed at the paper’s New River Valley bureau.
Nine months have passed since Blacksburg High School’s gymnasium collapsed, yet the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors still has not decided what to do about it.
To its credit, it handled the immediate aftermath well. Students are in school today.
For a while, a majority of supervisors supported repairing the old high school, but escalating costs and community ire have them reconsidering. Building a new school for Blacksburg — and an overdue school for Riner — is back on the table.
November 21, 2010 - 10:04 AM
MontCo citizens need to keep in mind that a $15 million loan is still a debt. It just doesn’t bear additional interest costs since it is via federal stimulus funding.
It is notable the county supervisors looked at total debt load after the school board made a recommendation, and suggested a 17% increase might be necessary to get the entire package funded now. That in the midst of a never ending election season. Since then and per a 5 pm Friday press release, the supervisors have restructed existing debt and have maintained current Moody and S&P ranking.
The elephant is the supervisors’ other spending on a multiple phase court house and property which was non-essential. That, and the fact that retirement, insurance and leave benefits for employees have precluded cost of living raises for over three years. This is not conservative budgeting nor is it sustainable.
Meanwhile the Mayor makes public the approach Blacksburg wishes, while the obvious solution remains unaddressed. If Blacksburg wants to define how the South Main property is used in the future, then the town should buy the property at Rordam’s “fair price”. It simply does not make fiscal sense to repair or upgrade the current BHS and replace the gym. Instead, county residents should be asked to fund a larger, new building where the high school’s stadium already stands.
The same can be said about the current BHS site. When rezoning is required for higest and best need, simply sell it to any qualified buyer and get the schools and county out of Blacksburg’s comprehensive planning.
The other former schools should be sold or razed, or their maintenance costs transferred from the school’s budget to that of the supervisors.
The rural school loans should be pursued and Auburn needs addressed now, not tabled in order to chose one over the other.
These are not popular decisions and do come with a price tag. Pay now, or pay later. It must be addressed and we are in a sorry state when officials behave likes rats, waiting to be cornered before they act.
It is indeed time to build a new BHS and AHS. I question the “need” to spend millions to turn the current AHS into a Middle School; the building could easily house the Middle School program as is (many thousands of dollars were spent recently to upgrade that building). Hopefully the Town of Blacksburg will play ball and ease their strict zoning polices so that the properties on South Main and Patrick Henry can be sold for maximum proceeds.
The time for divisiveness is over. Blacksburg citizens, parents, and teachers who have advocated for a new BHS have been vilified as “bullies.” The issue has pitted, unnecessarily and irrationally, factions claiming to represent the various communities of our county. Let’s come together and invest in our future, instead of attacking each other. The people of Blacksburg didn’t make the gym collapse and they didn’t build a faulty school in the first place. In the wake of this unfortunate event, we are simply trying to advocate fiscal responsibility and the safety of our children (and students, as some of us are teachers).