Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 7, 1991 TAG: 9103080694
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: W-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLES STEBBINS CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: NEW CASTLE LENGTH: Medium
Under a proposal by New Castle artist Connie Pracht, pupils at McCleary Elementary School will get art instruction at no cost to the school system. Pracht said she can get several businesses to cover the cost.
Pracht will teach basic art skills and the uses of art to pupils in the fourth through seventh grades.
She has done some art instruction at the school on a volunteer basis, and School Superintendent Dallas Helems and McCleary principal Pete Controvich said most of the pupils liked the instruction. They endorsed the program.
On another matter, Helems said projections indicate the school system will have surplus funds to reimburse parents who had to pay tuition this year for their children to attend the Governor's School for Science and Technology in Roanoke.
A tight school budget forced parents of six children to put up the tuition. But the school board promised to reimburse them at the end of the year, if possible.
Helems said that projections indicate the school budget will have enough surplus money to cover the $14,000 tuition for the six.
But Helems warned, however, that funds might not be available if the schools have emergency expenses before the end of this fiscal year.
Board member Robert Shaver said he hopes the board would not get into this same situation again. Is is not fair to keep parents in suspense all year over whether they would be reimbursed, he said.
Shaver said the board should take a definite position at the beginning of the year - either to cut the tuition or to put the funds in the budget.
The surplus is developing, Helems said, because of several factors.
A mild winter has reduced the schools' heating costs, he said. Also, the school system received more revenue than expected from the state because enrollment was higher than projected. The system also received more money from the federal government's forest resources program than expected..
On another matter, school board members were told that Craig schools will have six Odyssey of the Mind teams competing in a regional session Saturday at Virginia Tech.
Five of the teams will be made up of students from McCleary Elementary and one will be from Craig County High School.
In the Odyssey of the Mind program, students construct complex working models to solve problems.
by CNB