As promised, now that they have specific individuals targeted, the MCPS board has made their top candidates known for the system's superintendent position.
A community forum is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 23 at 7 pm at the centrally located Christiansburg Middle School, when the board will pay for three finalists to travel to Montgomery County for a visit and public vetting. That's fiscally prudent, as contrasted to hosting visits by the top ten candidates.
And just like the last time the county's school system was searching for a new leader, the old Blacksburg Middle School property has again resurfaced as a topic of discussion at the same moment.
The future of that property first became a three way circus when it was included as an asset in Blacksburg's Comprehensive Plan (even though it wasn't actually owned by the town) and officials sent some commercial developers to talk to the Board of Supervisors and then with a state delegate without including the elected school board. After subsidizing functions for another two years (and four years after moving students into a new building), the MCPS board shifted limited funding to directly benefit educating students and closed the building. That was another fiscally prudent decision, although unpopular in some camps.
So while the Board of Supervisors and School Board will have a joint meeting on Monday, Nov. 30, and a hiring decision is desired to be finalized before a mandated six-month deadline for filling this vacancy -- citizens shouldn't expect this leads to an immediate resolution on the fate of the old school. Unless the School Board surpluses the property to the Supervisors, who may have a residential developer waiting in the wings to purchase the property (since the land is zoned that way already by the town and a new commercial development up the street still has capacity and isn't built out). In that case, this could create demand for yet another new school in the Blacksburg strand -- but where's the land for that?
Maybe the School Board does need to hire someone who has an economic development background?