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Daily News Record Harrisonburg School Complex Neighbors Want Tree Buffer Maintained Couple Expects Change To Peace And Quiet of Smithland Road Residence By Jeff Mellott HARRISONBURG — Wayne Woodson and Clarissa Shoecraft are looking forward to their new neighbors moving in on Smithland Road. But they hope a stand of trees can remain as a buffer between their house and the proposed athletic fields and recreation areas for the new elementary and middle school complex. Although some trees had been removed from that area of the school site, the couple received assurances from Nielsen Builders Project Manager Gary McBride on Friday that changes in the campus layout could likely be made. Bamboo Barrier Woodson, 52, had already made plans to plant bamboo, just in case the stand of trees is removed. "In a couple of years," he said, "we wouldn’t have been able to see the school anyway." The couple moved to 1264 Smithland Road nearly two years ago. The area’s peace and quiet attracted them. But Shoecraft, 45, the English-as-a-Second-Language Literacy secretary at Harrisonburg High School, expects the area to change, even if the buffer of trees remains. As more homes are built along Smithland Road, some students, she said, won’t be able to resist the temptation of taking a shortcut across the family yard, she said. Noisy Neighbor The quiet of the neighborhood has already been disturbed. "It changed last Saturday morning," she said, referring to the work to clear and level the land for the school complex. The work to prepare the site could last until the end of October, McBride said. After that, he said, the noise level should drop. Shoecraft said she has no problem with the school moving next door, once the construction noise ends. The noise is not a problem for Woodson, who is the director of learning and organizational development at Rockingham Memorial Hospital. Woodson said other developments on the land were always possible. "I had an ambivalent feeling about it at first. [But then] I began thinking of the alternatives. It could have been a subdivision with 200 to 300 houses in it. A school sounds really good right now," he said. Superintendent Donald Ford acknowledged Woodson and Shoecraft at the groundbreaking ceremony on Friday. He pledged that the school division would be a good neighbor.
Daily News Record School Children Help Break Ground For School Complex The Elementary and Middle Schools Are Scheduled to Open In Fall of 2008 HARRISONBURG — Stone Spring Elementary School fifth-grader Amber Ness, 10, stamped her foot down several times on the edge of the gold-painted shovel. Amber, daughter of Mark and Theresa Ness, waited patiently in her hard hat for the signal to shovel the dirt as part of the groundbreaking ceremony on Friday for the new elementary and middle school complex. Standing beside her, Stone Spring fourth-grader John Earle, 9, son of Burns and Karen Earle, also waited. Amber and John, who could go to school in the new complex after it is completed in 2008, represented other city children who officials said are the reason for building the new school complex. Two Schools Construction crews started work at the site about a week before Friday’s ceremony. For the next couple of months, crews will level some of the rolling hills to prepare the site for the 219,562-square-foot complex. When completed, the complex will hold 600 elementary and 900 middle school students. An office wing will connect the two schools, which are yet to be named. While the elementary and middle school students will be separated, they will also share several parts of the complex, including the cafeteria. "We took great care in designing this facility," said Bill Laughlin, who represented Moseley Architects of Harrisonburg, "so that they, elementary and middle school kids, will not cross each others paths, unless they are actually escorted down the connecting corridor. It’s truly two schools connected at the hip." Increasing Enrollment The $37.1 million project, not including land, is designed to ease crowding and accommodates expected growth. Along with opening the school complex in two years, the school division will also move fifth-graders to the middle-school level to reduce overcrowding. The two middle schools will be the current Thomas Harrison Middle School and the new, yet unnamed, middle school. The Weldon Center for Public Service recently projected that enrollment in the city’s public schools will increase by 20 percent in the next five years. "It’s going to be very nice," said Superintendent Donald Ford, "to be able to reduce the number of [classroom trailers] that we have. I would like to say that we are getting rid of all of them. But, then you would hold me to that. So, I am not going to say that right now." Economic Boost The city is paying Nielsen Builders of Harrisonburg nearly $35 million to construct the complex. School Board member Tom Mendez, speaking as a member of the board of directors of the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Chamber of Commerce, said that the project will provide several hundred jobs. Many businesses in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County will provide the construction supplies, he said. "Much of the capital that will be invested in this project," Mendez said, "will benefit our local economy." The city is borrowing up to $50 million for the project. Nearly all of those funds are going for the land and design and construction of the school complex. But the money will also pay for a four-lane extension of Linda Lane that will connect Country Club Road with Smithland Road and provide access to the school site. For Students During his remarks, School Board Chairman Michael Walsh called Amber and John to his side. They were excited to be off of school, and a part of the ceremony. "It’s all she has talked about all week," said Mark Ness of his daughter, whose birthday was Thursday. Amber, on track for seventh grade when the new school opens, said she looks forward to attending the new middle school. She said it would be fun being in a new school and meeting new kids. John liked wearing the hard hat that came with the shovel for the groundbreaking ceremony. "It was kind of big," he said of the shovel that he deftly handled. In two years, John will be a sixth-grader when the new middle school opens. He is particularly looking forward to the new gymnasium. "You can run around in it and play basketball," he said. Walsh called the new school complex that Amber and John will attend a building block in a great educational system. "This is what it is all about," Walsh said, referring to the students.
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