Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 9, 1993 TAG: 9302090037
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MELISSA DeVAUGHN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
SCHOOL BOARDS HAVE A LOT ON THEIR SLATES
Happy School Board Appreciation Week to the following school board members in the New River Valley:\ Floyd County: William Munzing, chairman; Douglas Phillips, Margaret Hubbard, Howard Cunduff and Cheryl Whitlock-Allen.
School Board members are deciding whether to consolidate the county's four schools and build two new elementary schools. Also on the agenda is the construction of a middle school and improvements at the high school.
These plans are the result of a study done last year by the Virginia Department of Education.
\ Giles County: J.B. Buckland, chairman; Ronald Whitehead, Phillip Morris, J. Lewis Webb and Bruce Hedrick.
A lot of the concentration in Giles County is on a partnership program called certification. Certification allows community people and school people to work together to find out what students can do upon graduation to make them employable. This business-school partnership encourages local employment as well as higher education opportunities at New River Community College and Virginia Tech.
\ Montgomery County: Roy Vickers, chairman; Annette Perkins, Robert Goncz, Rebecca Raines, Barry Worth, Lou Herrmann, Virginia Kennedy and Donald Lacy.
The Montgomery County School Board is wrestling over the controversy of naming school holidays. A decision on whether to leave the names as "winter" and "spring" break or change them to "Christmas" and "Easter" breaks will be made in April. There is no School Board member representing Christiansburg since Daniel Schneck's resignation over the school-holidays issue.
\ Pulaski County: Ron Chaffin, chairman; Dr. Nathaniel R. Tuck, Rhea Saltz, Carolyn Brown, Sybil Atkinson and Lewis Pratt Jr.
School officials are trying to promote what is called "World Class Education," to bring the schools into the 21st century. Some of the ways they are trying to do this is to enlist businesses and industries in the classroom, to create a partnership between business and schools.
\ Radford: John M. McPhail, chairman; Guy S. Gentry, John "Chip" Craig, George L. Ducker, Carter L. Effler, Betty Plott.
The big project for the School Board in Radford is preparation for construction of a new band room and art room addition at Radford High School.
It's National Reading Month and almost every school in the New River Valley has something special planned.
This week's featured school is FALLING BRANCH ELEMENTARY, whose theme is "Branch Out - Read."
The school kicked off the observance last week by planting a tree on the school grounds. It was donated by Laurel Creek Nursery.
The school also will have "Read Me" day every Friday in which kids can wear hats or shirts or buttons with some sort of writing. Also on Fridays, faculty members will take turns reading a short-story selection over the intercom system.
Trivia week will feature daily trivia questions for each grade level. Pupils can write down the correct answers and one winner will be drawn from each grade. Each winner will receive a book.
Feb. 15-19 is "Adopt-a-Reader" week. Pupils will swap classes and pair up to read. Also, "DEAR - Drop Everything And Read," will be held. When teachers call "DEAR," pupils will stop whatever they are doing and read for 10 minutes.
Today there will be a program for kindergartners through grade 3 called `'Reading is Dino-Magical," featuring a magic show that deals with reading and language arts.
The culminating event at Falling Branch concerns a bet between the student body and school Principal J.C. Callahan, in which the pupils will strive to read more than 28,000 minutes by the end of the month. If the pupils meet that goal, the principal will have to do a humiliating stunt at an assembly. He won't tell what it is because it is a surprise, but the event is set for Feb. 26., probably late in the afternoon.
Michael Farrow, a senior at CHRISTIANSBURG HIGH SCHOOL, returned last week from the National Young Leaders Conference in Washington. He was one of 350 high school students from across the nation selected to attend the conference.
The theme was "The Leaders of Tomorrow Meeting the Leaders of Today." Farrow took part in activities involving the three branches of government, the media and the diplomatic corps.
He is a member of the Black Awareness Club, Co-ed Hi-Y, the Swing Choir, Youth America Campus Club, All-county chorus and All-district chorus. He also works 25 hours a week at Kroger after school.
The faculty at CHRISTIANSBURG PRIMARY SCHOOL will present the musical play "The Three Nanny Goats Gruff" Monday at the Parent-Teacher Association general meeting.
The play is an adaptation of the Norwegian play "The Three Billy Goats Gruff." The meeting and play will be at 7 p.m. at the school. For further information, call 382-5175.
The CHRISTIANSBURG HIGH SCHOOL After Prom committee will meet Monday at 7 p.m. in the boys' health room. For further information, call Betty Ashbrook at 381-0059 or Angie Knowles at 382-3283.
New River Community College is offering three workshops to help those who will apply for COLLEGE FINANCIAL AID in 1993-94. The sessions will provide step-by-step instructions for completing the form.
The workshops will be today at 11 a.m., Feb. 17 at 3 p.m. and Feb. 25 at 11 a.m. For further information, call the financial aid office at New River Community College, 674-3615.
The Montgomery County Council of Parent-Teacher Associations is sponsoring several informational meetings on the 1993-94 Montgomery County school budget. Superintendent Harold Dodge will discuss the "preferred," "essential" and "minimum" budgets that the School Board has submitted to the Board of Supervisors. The meetings are set for:
\ Blacksburg Middle School: Today at 7:30 p.m.
\ Riner Elementary: Feb. 17, 7:30 p.m.
\ Elliston-Lafayette Elementary: Feb. 23, 7:30 p.m.
\ Christiansburg Primary: Feb. 25, 7:30 p.m.
The BLACKSBURG MIDDLE SCHOOL Parent-Teacher Association is conducting a fund-raising project Wednesday through Feb. 19 to bring in live theater, help with a beautification project and buy additional materials to benefit the school.
Students will sell gift items from "Spring Collection" and "Grandma's Cupboard." For further information, call 552-2766.
A daylong workshop will be held Feb. 18 at Radford University on "V-QUEST," a state five-year plan for reforming math and science education in Virginia. It is an effort to join efforts by businesses and schools to make students better prepared for the work force upon graduation. Representatives from Inland Motors, Hoechst Celanese and Magnox will talk about what they look for in employees. Robert Small, dean of Radford University's college of education and human development, will talk about how to be that employee.
For further information, call 831-5460.
\ BETHEL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL has announced its winners of the 1992-93 Reflections Art and Literature Contest. They are:
Literature, kindergarten-grade 3: Rebecca Shelton, third grade, first; James Hinkley, first grade, second; Chasity Phillips, first grade, third.
Visual Arts, kindergarten-grade 3: Nolan Stewart, third grade, first; Megan Eller, second grade, second; Robert Mullins, second grade, third.
Literature, fourth and fifth grades: Alicia Keister, fifth grade, first; Annette Mullins, fifth grade, second; Amanda Hamlin, fifth grade, third.
Visual Arts, fourth and fifth grades: Travis Hawley, fifth grade, first; Joshua Leonard, fifth grade, second; Ricky Howell, fifth grade, third.
Judges were Butch Robinson for visual arts and Sandy Moore for literature.
\ PARENTS ADVOCATING GIFTED CHILDREN will meet tonight at 7 p.m. in the community room of the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library in Blacksburg.
The topic, "Parents Speak Out," is an open forum for discussion of parents' interests and concerns. For further information, call 552-6039.
If you have an interesting news item from your school, write to Melissa DeVaughn at P.O. Box 540, Christiansburg 24073.