ALL-DAY PROGRAM GETS OK

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 15, 1992                   TAG: 9201150313
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: NEAL THOMPSON EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
ALL-DAY PROGRAM GETS OK
If all goes as planned, Feb. 3 will be the first time all Roanoke kindergarten classes meet for a full day instead of just half a day.
School Board members approved a $65,000 plan Tuesday to hire teachers and turn four remaining half-day kindergarten programs - at Wasena, Raleigh Court, Grandin Court and Monterey elementary schools - into full-day programs.
School administrators have worked behind the scenes in recent weeks to obtain assurances of City Council's support for spending the money. The plan - unanimously approved and now headed to council - was a last-minute addition to the board meeting agenda.
The action was greeted with applause from parents in the audience.
Parents have been pestering Superintendent Frank Tota and the School Board for months to make full-day kindergarten its top priority. They have complained that it is unfair to finance all-day programs at all but four schools.
Gary Bowman, whose daughter attends Grandin Court's half-day program, said he was glad to see that administrators and board members actually listen and respond to parental concerns.
Tota said Roanoke doesn't actually have the money, but the state assured him that enough money is headed this way because of increased enrollment. He also said City Manager Bob Herbert assured him of City Council's support.
There are no such assurances for next year. That depends on the General Assembly's budget and council's spending decisions, Tota said.
In other School Board action, a Madison Middle School custodian demanded that someone respond to rumors that the school system was switching to a four-day week to save money.
Sandra Sloane said the rumors have been circulating for two months and employees were beginning to fear for their jobs.
Tota said that in November it looked as though Roanoke might lose $1 million in state funding. School officials considered making up for that by going to a four-day school week the rest of this year. Students and school employees had switched to four 10-hour days in the summer to save money.
But Tota said the money situation is not as bad as first expected and that the idea had been dropped.
Sloane said she wasn't convinced. "He beat around the bush tonight. You could tell that it's still a possibility."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB