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

DATE: THURSDAY, March 5, 1992                   TAG: 9203050466
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: W-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SATURDAY SUSPENSION INCLUDED IN SCHOOL BUDGET

The School Board, last week, reviewed the non-personnel portion of its proposed budget for the next fiscal year. Included in non-personnel costs was $10,000 for a Saturday suspension program.

"You have youngsters who do get in trouble," Superintendent Wayne Tripp said. "One of the tools is to suspend them from school. But this would give them the opportunity to be there by requiring them to come back to school on Saturday morning."

Suspended students could opt to attend school Monday through Friday plus one additional day - Saturday. They would be expected to do work while in school on Saturdays, Tripp said.

"It's an option - a disciplinary tool," Tripp said. "There will be youngsters who say `no'."

The program is an intermediate step between in-school suspension - where students are confined to one room during the school day - and out-of-school suspension, Tripp said.

The idea came from the parents of suspended students, who were concerned that keeping their children out of school hurt rather than helped them, Tripp said.

"They talked about their students being suspended was an ineffective means of punishment," he said. "What they were saying was that you can't teach them if they're not there. They didn't see the point of putting them out of school."

The number of school suspensions in the school system was not available. But one school official estimated that of the total, three-fourths are at Salem High School and one-fourth are at Andrew Lewis Middle School.

The $10,000 primarily will pay for staffing costs at both schools. Suspended students will attend a half-day, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

A pilot Saturday suspension program will begin at Andrew Lewis next week from 8 a.m. until noon, Tripp said.

Other proposed non-personnel costs included:

An $11,100 drop in payment to the Roanoke Valley Governor's School for Science and Technology. Salem traditionally has provided money for 10 governor's school slots but has never filled all of them. This year, only three of the slots were filled.

Tripp has proposed that the school system provide only enough money for five slots - $12,500.

"We're not going to pay for 10 if we only have three," he said. "We're not backing off of our commitment to the governor's school. It's a unique opportunity. But we're not going to pay for services that we don't receive."

$11,000 to contract out the behind-the-wheel portion of driver's education.

"Driver's ed car rental is killing us," Tripp said. "We think contracting would be cheaper."

The School Board will review the personnel part of the budget on March 24.