| Meeting Minutes
January 23, 2008
South Roanoke Neighborhood General Membership Meeting, Wednesday, January 23, 2008
President Bill Thomasson called the first meeting of the year to order at 7:02pm. Curt Davis gave his treasurer’s report. The neighborhood association had 176 members in 2007. $3965.00 in membership fees were collected to add to a prior balance of @ $5800.00; after expenses of $3230.00, the current balance was $6571.00 at the end of 2007.
The neighborhood revision plan was discussed; after three public workshops, the final plan will be presented to the city’s planning commission. The updated plan covers the following bullet points: 1) community design: incorporate McClanahan Ave. into the neighborhood more efficiently 2) improve the neighborhood parks: improve River’s Edge 3) transportation: connect the neighborhood to downtown with a “trolley car” system 4) schools: address the over-crowding at Crystal Spring Elementary School.
If the plan passes, it will them be presented to City Council on 1/24. Check Roanokeva.gov for the progress.
Dr. Rita Bishop, Roanoke city school’s superintendent, spoke to the membership about concerns regarding Crystal Spring Elementary School. The school currently has 342 students, which is considered to be at capacity. She has plans for the school system’s academic year, including initiating daily World Language lessons (Spanish, first – then Mandarin Chinese, the next year) at the elementary level. She would like to add the pre-school program back at Crystal Spring. In order to allow for more classrooms to incorporate these changes, she has investigated building on top of the most recent addition located on the blacktop section of the property. She said that she will monitor three things: 1) housing turnover in the area 2) enrollment numbers at the school 3) the possible addition of a new neighborhood nearby. The school board will look at all of these things. She believes that the enrollment will only continue to increase, and a new addition would ease the problem. A new addition could be built over a summer.
She also has plans for “honors” programs at all six middle schools starting in the fall. She and her staff are working diligently on improving high school graduation rates; that is a point that she is disappointed in.
She and School Board Chairman, David Carson, addressed the question of change in start times for the schools in the fall. The current three stop and start times would be reduced to two: middle and high school starting at 9:00 - the elementary school starting at 8:00. While these are the ideal times, the school board has not formally made any changes yet.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:28pm.
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