BOTETOURT CO., Va. – The future of some Botetourt County Public Schools facilities is up for debate.
Earlier in the year, the district created An Efficiency & Facilities Task Force. The task force was compiled of teachers, administrators, school board members, staff, and parents.
School Board Chairwoman Annie Weddle was on the task force. One of the big reasons they are looking at the future of some facilities is because of aging infrastructure.
“We have a lot of really aging facilities, some of our schools are over 70 years old … so we know something has to be done,” Weddle said.
The task force came up with a list of scenarios:
- No external funding source (do nothing)
- Fund existing capital improvement plan
- New combined high school campus with BTEC
- New Lord Botetourt High School campus
- New combined secondary campus (middle and high School)
- Consolidate elementary schools with one school closing
- Consolidate elementary schools with two schools closing
Ultimately the task force gave recommendations to the school board for scenarios one, two, four, and six.
“With new schools or consolidated schools, we can have a lot better teams and a lot more opportunities for students and families. I think it’s important for everybody to keep an open mind about what the future could hold,” Weddle said. “We have a lot of data backing up any decision we may make and even though it will be emotional … we will hopefully work through that”
One thing Superintendent John Russ emphasized was there is no final decision.
“When we leave here tonight, there will be zero decisions made about what’s going to happen to current schools, new schools, old schools … no decisions have been made,” Russ said.
Several school board members are planning to look through more data before bringing up the conversation again.