The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors recognized outgoing board members Gary Creed (District C) and Annette Perkins (District A) before Monday’s regular scheduled meeting. Creed served 16 years on the board while Perkins served 20.
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors approved the transfer of approximately $1.8 million to the school system for renovations at Christiansburg High School.
Most of the funds (approximately $1.2 million) come from the sale of various county owned properties, including the recently sold old Blacksburg High School. The rest of the money is from the county’s future school projects fund, which is comprised of a portion of the property taxes collected each year.
The county reimbursed itself $53,073 with the funds to cover the expenses of maintaining the recently sold properties.
This latest allotment will cover the costs of the baseball and softball facilities, including a new artificial turf field. The $2.1 million that the supervisors gave the school system in October will pay for a new artificial turf football field and rubberized track, as well as the new concession stands and restrooms for the outdoor athletic facilities.
According to Montgomery County Public School officials, Construction of the football field and track is set for the spring in order to have it ready for the 2018 football season.
The softball field project is slated for the summer of 2019 and it will be located where the current football practice field is located.
The idea is to have the new football field finished so that the team would no longer need the practice field and softball field construction could begin.
Phase two of the total plan is to build a new academic building, gym and elementary school starting in 2022. The seven-year construction plan would allow a budget for building the new elementary school by renovating the current high school at approximately $60 million.
The last phase involves upgrading the current CHS facilities. This means that there will have to be a movement of students from the current building to the new building during renovation, which could cause teachers to have to share classrooms during the time of the renovation.
With the way this plan is organized, construction on the less-expensive areas, such as the stadium costing only around $4 million and finish with the more expensive areas. The academic building would cost $40-60 million, which requires more time and planning to budget.
The new academic buildings are designed to have wide windows across the front, which will give the students and faculty a nicer view during the school day.
Superintendent Mark Miear has previously mentioned visiting other schools in the area, such as Waynesboro High School, that are going through similar renovations in order to get ideas about the process and design.
The county does not currently have a plan on how to fund the majority of the projects that the Christiansburg strand schools still need, mostly due to being tied up in bonds from projects at other schools in the county, like the new Blacksburg middle and high schools.
