Blacksburg High students will take classes at middle school
CHRISTIANBURG – The students at Blacksburg High School might not be able to return to the building for the rest of the school year in the wake of the gym roof collapse that occurred last Saturday, Interim Superintendent Walt Shannon said at the Montgomery County School Board meeting Tuesday.
Wednesday afternoon, the school system released a statement saying Blacksburg High School students will now be going to class at Blacksburg Middle School.
“The new site for students at Blacksburg High School will be Blacksburg Middle School,” the statement reads. “The high school students will use the middle school after the middle school students have finished their school day; therefore, the high school students will have an afternoon/evening schedule.”
The focus of the staff right now, is not on what to do, at this time with Blacksburg High School and the collapsed roof,” Shannon said. “That will happen in time. Our focus right now is how can we schedule and how can we get the students of Blacksburg High School back connected with their faculty, and connected with class.”
Although the gym area was secured over the weekend and utilities have been restored to the rest of the building, Blacksburg building officials have ordered BHS closed until further notice because of unsafe conditions, Shannon said. Before students can return to BHS, debris must be removed, the gym must be stabilized, and the rest of the building must be thoroughly evaluated to make sure it is safe, Shannon said.
At Tuesday’s school board meeting, Shannon explained BHS staff and faculty have set up temporary offices at BMS and the fact that the middle is in the same community as BHS is an advantage. However, as a middle school, BMS does not have amenities such as career and technical education classrooms, he said.
MCPS administrators have collaborated with BHS faculty and staff to figure out a solution, Shannon said. They will continue to keep parents and students abreast of the decisions, but there won’t be a perfect solution when trying to come up with a plan to get 1,200 students and 150 faculty and staff members back to school, he said.
“It won’t be perfect,” Shannon said. “The first few times, there’ll be a lot of things that will happen, but at least it’ll be done with a plan and making sure that they’re accommodating people, not leaving them wandering on their own or guessing as to where they go and what to expect when they get there.”
BHS Parent-Teacher-Student Association President Susanna Rinehart reminded the Board during the public address period of the meeting to keep the students’, parents’ and teachers’ issues in mind and keep them informed of developments as they occur. Some of those affected by the collapse fear the Board could overlook some of their concerns as they try to come up with a solution for getting students back to school as quickly as possible, Rinehart said.
”I think, perhaps that what’s happened in the last 24 hours or so is that we have all, as parents and students, I think, in particular, begun to emerge from the immediate shock of Saturday’s events to an increasingly daunting awareness of the enormous ramifications of the gym roof collapse,” Rinehart said. “And those have begun to hit us very hard.”
Rinehart said she realizes there will not be a perfect solution, but asked the Board to consider the long-term and short-term consequences of any decisions they make on the matter.
Incoming Superintendent Brenda Blackburn, whose first day on the job is March 1, wrote a letter to the Board that stated she is confident in their ability to resolve the many issues surrounding the roof collapse.
“From watching your actions to this point, I know the pressing issues will be resolved in a way that addresses safety and academics in the best possible way,” Blackburn wrote.
Seniors of the Month were also announced during the Board meeting. Senior of the Month is awarded to students who show outstanding achievement in leadership, ability and motivation. The Seniors of the Month for February are: Pamela Elizabeth Pack of Auburn High School; Hannah O’Connell of Blacksburg High School; Samantha Page Chase of Christiansburg High School; and Kati Emili Nicholle Hurt of Eastern Montgomery High School.
