Jennifer Heaslip Herald News Editor

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ROANOKE RAPIDS - City school board members agreed to purchase two mobile classrooms for the coming school year, one for Manning Elementary and one for Belmont Elementary.

The district really needs to look at getting two of the units for each campus, district Maintenance Director Doug Miller said, but the company they are working with has only two new units available now as school systems across the state are adding units to fight overcrowding.

Although the board will initially pay for the units, they will request money from the Halifax County Board of Commissioners to replace the funds, which Miller said were slated for other much-needed projects such as underground tank removals. The board's request to the commissioners will be for four units.

School board Chair Vernon Bryant said he thought their request for county funds was reasonable and hoped it would be honored.

The two new trailers will cost $23,660 each, plus the cost of site preparation work, plumbing, electrical work, skirting and more. At Manning alone, it will cost $12,000 for sewer, water and fire work, skirting and site preparation such as adding concrete and the clearing of the land for two units.

If the trailers are purchased today, Miller said, they can be in place just in time for the start of school. They will also look into finding two more available units and their costs.

At Manning, a kindergarten class was added last year and now a second- and a third-grade classroom will be added for fall.

“We have to have one for survival purposes,” Manning Principal Andy Kennedy told school board members, adding he will need another unit for the 2008-2009 school year.

Belmont also needs more space, mainly to enhance offerings in the Academically and Intellectually Gifted and reading programs.

With new housing under construction and the debut of The Randy Parton Theatre and Carolina Crossroads, some school officials expect enrollment will continue to rise.

“I just don't see an end to the growth,” board member Mike Salanik said.

He also said the county needs to consider a bond referendum or find some other stream of revenue to keep children out of trailers and keep facilities up to date.

This will be the first trailer placed at Belmont. It will be the seventh for Manning.