Build middle school at Hoover Ridge?

By Jane DeGeorge
Eagle Reporter
Published: October 23, 2008

In coming years, Madison County’s middle school may call Hoover Ridge home.

Madison County Public Schools officials are working to develop a timeline for future school construction and renovation projects – including building a new middle school.

School board members are currently reviewing a draft capital improvement plan, which includes $48 million of possible large building-related projects.

The draft plan – presented to the school board Oct. 13 – includes the estimated costs of renovating the current Madison County High School-Wetsel Middle School complex and constructing a new and separate school building to serve as a middle school.

The school board and the Madison County Board of Supervisors will meet to discuss these possible future building improvements, as well as the schools’ upcoming fiscal year budget, during a joint meeting set for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 5. (The location of this meeting has not yet been set and will be announced later.)

For the past two years, school administrators have been working to create long-range renovation plans for Madison County’s public schools.

A $20,000 taxpayer-funded study of the schools buildings, completed by Richmond-based Moseley Architects in late 2007, reported that the MCHS-WMS complex was the building most in need of improvements. MCHS was first built about 50 years ago, the middle school was added onto the high school about a decade later, according to school officials.

The board then hired Charlottesville-based Crabtree, Rohrbaugh and Associates Architects to develop a $12,000 report of construction, expansion and renovation possibilities of this building.

That report – presented to school officials in June – was also based on recommendations from a facilities planning committee that included schools staff and local officials that met multiple times this past spring.

Company representatives reported that the committee had recommended the school board consider either renovating and expanding the current complex or renovating the complex and constructing a new and separate school building – on the county-owned Hoover Ridge property adjacent to Madison Primary School – that would become the new home of Madison County’s middle school. The cost of these two options ranged from between $34-46 million. 

School officials decided to include the second option within its draft capital improvement plan to be considered by the school board, Superintendent Brenda Tanner told school board members at its regularly scheduled Oct. 13 meeting. 

Other large projects the school has put on its “to do” list include renovating Madison Primary School, which was built in the 1970s, Tanner told the board. This project is estimated to cost up to $1.1 million, according to the draft capital improvement plan.

“We talked about enhancing security for that building by extending office space where the canopy is,” Tanner said at the meeting.

This change would require those entering the school to immediately walk into the main office, rather then first passing through the front hallway. The currently used office space area would possibly be converted into classroom space.

“This would free up the office space so we could relocate classrooms if we needed to expand because of growth or expand the pre-school,” she said. The primary school’s pre-school program serves two classes each day with a total enrollment of about 50 students, according to figures provided by school officials earlier this year.

“The pre-school had 20 [students] on a waiting list last time I checked,” Tanner told the board.

The schools would also like to resurface the parking lots at all of its existing buildings with the highest priority being the lot at the school board’s headquarters off Fairground Road, the superintendent said.

School officials also noted possibly replacing the lights at Waverly Yowell Elementary School’s softball field and building a storage shed with a concrete floor for maintenance equipment, according to the plan.

The draft plan just includes larger construction, renovation and improvement projects school officials have deemed important although there are other smaller projects they have eyed, including repainting the schools and replacing lighting fixtures at the primary school, Tanner said.
The school board is expected to vote on its capital improvement plan at its next meeting set for 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 10.

In other matters at the Madison County School Board’s regularly scheduled Oct. 13 meeting, the board:

• Approved two separate field trip requests for the Madison County High School band and the high school’s French classes. Band members – who will pay about $325-$350 each to participate – will travel to the Annapolis, Md.-Baltimore area over a weekend in the spring. The French class trip – which involves a week of traveling around France and will cost students about $3,500 each – was approved by the board on the conditions that no students be denied participation because of an inability to pay and that administrators have a right to cancel the trip if issues arise regarding student safety.

• Listened to a report by Assistant Superintendent of Administration Allan McLearen about the school system’s average student-teacher ratios. The averages – which are below the maximums – are 24 students for every teacher in kindergarten through sixth grade classes and in sixth-12th grade English classes, according to McLearen. The different classes’ ratios ranged between kindergarten classes with the lowest ratio of about 17 students for every teacher and seventh grade English classes with the highest ratio of slightly more than 24 students for every teacher, he said.

• Approved American International Group (AIG) VALIC as the new third party administrator for the school system’s employee 403(b) retirement savings plan due to new Internal Revenue Service rules that require the use of an outside administrator. A company representative assured board members that it was a separate part of its parent company that “got in trouble” requiring the recent federal loan to avoid bankruptcy. However, the company representative did say that AIG VALIC is currently for sale, as are a lot of AIG companies.

• Honored Waverly Yowell Elementary School fourth graders Mary-Kate Carpenter and Marlie Soderquist for their participation in the Montpelier Foundation’s celebration of Constitution Day. The two students were among the 15 winners in a poster contest who were able to hold up cardboard square stars as part of a giant “living” American flag during the Sept. 17 celebration, which also marked the completion of the Orange County landmark’s renovation.

• Received Virginia School Board Association Academy Award certificates in recognition of attending VSBA Academy programs.