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

DATE: FRIDAY, September 24, 1993                   TAG: 9309240167
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By MICHAEL CSOLLANY staff writer
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Short

NEW DAY-CARE CENTER MAY COME FROM FAMILIES' MEETING

Parents and staff members of the Mount Tabor Nursery School and Day-Care Center met Wednesday night to begin a grass-roots effort to form a new day-care center.

Some 30 to 40 youngsters have been withdrawn from Mount Tabor since its board announced a new curriculum with elective religious instruction. Some parents were concerned about the content of the instruction and the effects of segregation on the children opting out. "Parents had a problem more with the process and not the program," said Alyson Bowling, the group's spokeswoman. "A lot of the people withdrawing their kids are Christians."

But she said many parents thought the board showed little concern for the staff and parents. Parents believed they had no voice in the process.

Bowling and her husband, Randall, put up fliers about the meeting and were expecting fewer than 50 people to attend. She said she was surprised when the room at the Briarwood Club House was standing room only.

The group elected officers and formed committees to find a site for the new center, hire staff members, and work out the legal and financial logistics of starting a day-care center.

Fourteen staff members of Mount Tabor have submitted their resignations. Some, including 10-year director Gulben Esser, have expressed interest in working at the proposed facility.

by CNB