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By DAPHNE HUTCHINSON
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
“If there’s no growth, then there’s no need for expansion. But if there’s growth, we need to plan for it,” maintained Superintendent David Gangel last week as he presented the School Board with a “capital expansion contingency plan” which proposes a $3.5 million middle school constructed within 10 years should the county’s growth rate reach five percent.
“We want “to see where things are going so that we’re not entirely reacting but instead planning,” Dr. Gangel said.
Chairman Beverly Massie noted that the look ahead comes at the Board of Supervisors’ request. “This is what we were asked to do in order for the county to have a better handle on long term projections for capital improvements ... I applaud them for it. I’m delighted to see a more orderly program being established,” said the veteran School Board member.
Mrs. Massie was a member of the joint School Board/Board of Supervisors committee which first cited the need for a high school expansion and was also chairman of the 1988 board which saw an expansion project finally completed. In past years, capital expansion programs have too often been undertaken only “when push came to shove,” Mrs. Massie added.
Enrollment is currently 575 at the Rappahannock County Elementary School and 370 at the high school, and Dr. Gangel put capacity at 661 for RCES and 500 for RCHS without alterations to the facilities.
He pointed out that capacity for the two buildings has been steadily decreased by state-mandated reductions in class size:, particularly for kindergarten, first grade, English, and special education, and by new programs, such as this year’s remedial edtreation, which require additional classrooms^ “So we’re in a different situation that we were just a few years ago”
He also pointed out that space demands change from year to year, dependent on enrollment “bubbles” at different grade levels and on the number of children with special needs.
Estimating the time for planning, design, arrangement of financing, and construction for a new school at four years, Dr. Gangel gave the board different growth scenarios showing when enrollment would trigger the four-year project development clock. With a growth rate of one percent, planning would have to start
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