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New alternative school opening soon

STAUNTON - The long, low white building with the purple shutters sits blank-faced and vacant on Village Green Road.

The gravel parking lot is partially overgrown with weeds - a sign of years of limited use. A "for sale or lease" sign hangs on a side wall facing Va. 254.

Soon, however, the old state office building will be crawling with activity, as A.R.C.H. Academy founder Brenda Rose and a crew of volunteers work to turn it into a school. The acronym stands for Alternative Resources for Creative Homes.

It's been more than two months since Rose first pitched her idea for an alternative school at a meeting in the Staunton Public Library. Since then, she and her co-teacher, Karen Hurt, have worked to rally interest while at the same time shopping for a location that would fit their nontraditional ideas of a school building. They plan to open A.R.C.H. Academy in the fall.

But the road from idea to reality has been pebbled with obstacles and legal requirements to be met. The past two months included lawyers, landlords and planners, as well as parents and prospective students. The experience has been, as Rose described it, a literal rollercoaster ride of rising and falling hopes and expectations.

"I feel like I'm in a catch-22," Rose said a few weeks ago, describing the frustration of trying to sell a landlord on the idea of a school that does not yet have tuition-paying students and parents on the idea of a school that does not yet have a location.

"Which comes first, the building or the people?"

Perhaps both, as it turns out.

Not long after Rose made those comments, local Realtor Greg Balsley called with a proposition: Come look at his building, about a half-mile from Staunton's new loop road, and see if it would meet the needs of the school.

"She's filling a niche that this area needs, and there are kids out there that need A.R.C.H. Academy," Balsley explained.

Rose's idea about school as a place with curriculum tailored to individual students struck a chord with Balsley and his wife Dania. Three of their children have flourished in the local public school system, but a fourth just didn't fit well with the public school curriculum, he said. She's now taking coursework online, but the Balsleys are considering sending their daughter to A.R.C.H. Academy in the fall.

The building's large size - 6,000 square feet - also seemed a good fit. It's too much for most small business owners, but just right for a school, Balsley said.

"A school brings life, and that is what this building needs," he said. "It needs life."

The lease isn't set yet, because Rose must obtain approval from the county to operate a school there. To open in time for the start of the school year, however, they'll have to begin interior renovations this summer, before receiving final approval in August.

Rose plans to knock out several interior walls to open up the space, working with an "A.R.C.H.itect" to make sure her ideas are both structurally sound and consistent with Virginia's requirements for school buildings. She envisions a modified floor plan with stations set up in mostly open classrooms, though there also would be separate rooms for an office, a kitchen, a music room, an art room and a recreation room.

The building also needs some cosmetic work, with Balsley replacing floor and ceiling tiles water damaged from former roof leaks. The roof has been replaced.

The decision to move ahead with construction following preliminary approval in July is a risk, but one that's necessary in order to open A.R.C.H. Academy on schedule. Eight students already have signed up to start, and Rose hopes to recruit more by the end of the summer. The school also would cater to part-time students, many of them homeschoolers whose parents bring them in for extra help or enrichment.

Despite the risk, Rose said she thinks this is the building - and thus the key to getting started.

"Once we're ready for people to come by, I think it'll be nice," she said.

By Christina M. Mitchell
cmitchell@newsleader.com

Posted by: SoulRiser
Source Article

Posted in: News on June 19, 2007 @ 12:00 AM

Tags: School

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