Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 7, 1991 TAG: 9102080273
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By NEAL THOMPSON EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The strutting will take place on the top two floors of the City Market Building as part of the city's second annual Magnet Recruiting Fair from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m.
Students will dance, sing, give instrumental performances and show their computer skills during the fair. Magnet school teachers and parents of magnet school students also will mingle to discuss with potential students and parents the benefits of magnet programs.
Booths and displays of science experiments and computer demonstrations will be set up at the fair.
City school officials have said they are trying to attract more students from Roanoke County and surrounding areas this year. One of the goals of the 3-year-old magnet program is to achieve racial balance in inner-city schools by attracting non-minority students from other districts or other parts of the city.
Magnet schools offer more intensive course work than regular schools. And, since the schools are federally funded, they usually have high-tech computers and equipment.
March 22 is the application deadline for next year.
The following city schools have magnet programs: Fishburn Park Elementary, which has a back-to-basics program; Highland Park Learning Center, which has computer-intergrated elementary programs; Roanoke Academy for Math and Science; Westside Elementary School of the Performing Arts; Madison Middle, which specializes in math, science and computers; Ruffner Middle, which has two programs called the School of the Arts and the Center for High Technology; and William Fleming, which offers, on the high school level, the same two programs as Ruffner.
Officials announced in December that they planned to open two new magnet schools next September. Fairview Elementary would be changed to the World of Plants and Animals Magnet Elementary School, and Addison Middle would become Addison Aerospace Magnet School.
Roanoke is still waiting to learn whether it has been approved for grants from the U.S. Department of Education to pay for those programs.
Roanoke Academy, also known as RAMS, is Roanoke's newest magnet school and opened this year at the former Northwest Elementary School on 19th Street.
Magnet school spokeswoman Sandra Bryant said enrollment should grow next year at that school as word spreads about its specialized math and science classes.
Forest Park Elementary School also has been targeted for the city's next new magnet program to open in 1992 after the school closes next year for renovations.
by CNB