PULASKI EDUCATORS SEEK TO EASE KIDS' `INCREDIBLE BURDENS'

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

DATE: SATURDAY, March 13, 1993                   TAG: 9303130041
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium
PULASKI EDUCATORS SEEK TO EASE KIDS' `INCREDIBLE BURDENS'
Pulaski County educators are finding that the young people they teach are coming to school with increasingly heavy burdens from the outside world.
They have problems ranging from abuse and drugs to adults at home who simply show no interest in them. "We're seeing more of it, we're seeing more behavioral results of it, and we're having to deal with it as we never have before," Superintendent William Asbury told the School Board Thursday night.
One response to the situation is a recommendation for more guidance counselors. Another is to find ways to alert teachers to problems that young people bring with them that hamper learning.
The board viewed a videotape play about the unexpected death of a student and a teacher's look into the boy's past to find out why nobody saw the warning signs stemming from his problems over years.
"This is not just a fiction story. This is going on every day," Asbury said. Situations local educators face are often worse than those portrayed in the tape, he said.
"And that's partly why you see in this year's budget an increased emphasis at going after children like this, giving them a life raft to hold onto," he said. Young people are coming to school with "incredible burdens" today, he said.
While county educators study organizational changes to improve education programs and incorporate technological developments in these programs, they must never forget the children that are at the center of it all, Asbury said.
Board members have been discussing whether there is a need for a before-school and after-school supervised care program for children. Changes in attendance zones for three schools in the town of Pulaski - to follow the closing of Jefferson Elementary School in June - have increased the need.
Many parents have work hours or locations that make it difficult to be at home when school is out. Existing arrangements, such as having a child stay with a relative near a school, may be disrupted with the attendance zone changes.
Such a program would be for children from kindergarten through fifth grade.
Associate Superintendent Phyllis Bishop said that parents with such problems seemed elated at the idea of a care program. "Almost immediately you could just see the relief come over their faces," she said.
Asbury said the first step would be to survey homes, school by school, to see what the need actually is and how many would use it. Then a program would be devised and bids would be sought from the private sector to see who would operate it, because the school system has no funds for it.
Facilities at the schools would be made available for it, however. Asbury said such a program might take children starting at 6 a.m. until schools opened and again after they closed until 6 p.m.
"It may or may not fly," he said. "It would have to be something that would be self-sustaining. . . . Certainly it's worth a look."
School Board member Ray Saltz said one option might be a central program for several small schools that, by themselves, lack the numbers to make such a program viable. Transportation to the central location might be a problem, he said. "But we can't do anything 'til we get the survey."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB