Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 2, 1993 TAG: 9309020466
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SARAH COX SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It's not just the rapid rise in student population - they average more than 200 new students per year, according to Superintendent John Kent.
It's not just the subsequent additional teachers - 10 to 20 each year. It's not just the new buildings and additions, nor is it the few administrative changes - such as the new principal of Bedford Middle School, Faye Craghead, formerly of Thaxton Elementary School, or her replacement, principal Sondra Ratliff.
It's the attitude.
"Maybe someday, instead of kids carrying book bags, kids will carry a laptop computer," said John Walker, principal of Jefferson Forest High School. "We're now teaching them how to learn and how to use that knowledge," instead of teaching outdated facts.
As part of a push to the future, Jefferson Forest High School put computers in the classrooms last year, and the 1993-94 school year will bring that same advantage to Liberty and Staunton River high schools.
Last year the school system spent $285,000 on computers, and this year the budget is $475,000. Kent gave three reasons for this initiative: parental support; preparing students for the work force; and computers as an effective teaching tool and an enhancement to the classroom.
The goal, Kent said, is to put computer labs in all the elementary schools, with 10 to 20 computer stations in each lab. These will be networked so that various software programs can be used, and the system will be used for both instructional and remedial purposes.
"Our goal right now is 20 minutes at the computer for each student each day," he said.
Bedford high schools have a computer check-out system in their libraries, and the public libraries in the area participate in a cooperative program to share computer-accessed research materials. Walker said that he hopes the Bedford school system someday will allow a student at home to access the school's network through his own computer and, from there, access national library resources.
The computer-integrated concept has worked well at Jefferson Forest, said Walker, who views his school as a pilot program.
Part of the reasoning behind placing computers in the classrooms is to nudge teachers along, he said. If computers are available, students will use them, he reasoned.
Walker said all 10th-graders have studied a year of keyboarding, plus WordPerfect and Windows concepts. "We want to try to make sure all our students who leave here have this skill. Instead of charging book fees, we'll charge computer fees," he said.
Also new this year is a program called Middle BRIDGES, or Building Relationships Involving Developing Good Employment, which targets at-risk middle-school students by providing counseling, instructional services and mentors in the community.
The school system, through a cooperative effort with the Chamber of Commerce's Bedford Industrial Management Council, also took over a summer youth-employment program whose purpose is to motivate students by using business leaders as mentors, as well as providing a separate facility for remedial work.
The system also has some capital improvements, partly because of the growing student population, which officials say will probably be 9,088 this fall.
Kent said he hopes remodeling at Bedford Primary and Boonesboro Elementary schools will be completed by Oct. 1. Also, a new 100,000-square-foot, 900-pupil Forest Middle School will open next fall.
by CNB