Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 21, 1993 TAG: 9311220268
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
I wish to clarify two points in the article. Virginia Tech`s Department of Recreational Sports helped fund the initial purchase of shells, and we have done fund raising to help to buy our equipment. Even more important than the initial stipend was the large budget in 1992 that purchased our two fiberglass racing shells, oars and our trailer. The department has continued to support us with funding this year for transportation to races, entry fees and equipment. The department contributes the overwhelming portion of our overall funds. I wanted to let everyone know how much the school has been behind us.
The women's team also deserves a few more sentences than they received (partially because they did not practice the day Steven Foster came out). In our 72-5 record last fall, over half of those boats beaten were by the women's team. Our women's team, although smaller, has been finishing a little bit stronger than the men.
Both teams finished very strong this past weekend, with the women's varsity 8 getting a gold medal, the men's bronze 8 a bronze, and the men's novice 8 finishing 6 out of 22.
John Onderdonk
Head coach
Virginia Tech Crew
Blacksburg
Appreciation for election
I would like to express my appreciation to everyone who supported me on Election Day. I thank you for the confidence you have shown by allowing me another term as your treasurer. I look forward to serving you for the next four years.
Martin Roberts
Radford City Treasurer
Radford
Closing cannery false economy
The Montgomery County School Board is considering closing the Blacksburg Community Cannery. This cannery has been in operation for 40 years because it is important to our community. Its patrons preserve thousands of jars of food each year from local gardens, farmers markets and orchards.
It would be false economy to dismantle a facility that is so well located and so efficiently set up for canning. Fifty-seven groups of people and families used the cannery this year, including many local civic organizations. Also, 167 citizens, so far, have signed a petition opposed to closing the cannery.
The Riner cannery is too small, not as well-equipped and too far away to serve as a replacement.
As our population increases, Montgomery County revenues have risen from $18.2 million collected in 1983, to $23.7 million in 1988, to $37.5 million collected for 1993. Why, at the very time that our population is increasing, should the facilities that enrich our community be eliminated?
Since over 72 percent of our county taxes are used to fund the schools, and since the Board of Supervisors puts money in the school budget specifically for the canning operations, I feel that the citizens should be entitled to the one room that is now, and has for the last 40 years, served as the Blacksburg Community Cannery.
Lucy Goldberg
Blacksburg
\ Editor's Note: The Montgomery County School Board voted Tuesday to close the Blacksburg Middle School's cannery and combine it with one at Auburn High School in Riner.
Teachers need empowerment
I would like to express my appreciation for the talents and dedication of the teaching staff at Beeks Elementary School where my two daughters attend school. I've been amazed at the range and variety of educational and nurturing experiences teachers have provided.
It's a great leap since my own days in a country school where mostly I remember reading textbooks aloud - not far from the recitation at my father's one-room school.
Teachers now respond to a complexity of demands we make of the schools, from providing remedies to social problems to preparing students to compete in a world economy. I've found teachers at Beeks to be intelligent, resourceful, interpersonally skilled and dedicated.
Yet today the profession seems lacking in the professional stature we accord to others in the society with similar skills and responsibilities.
Perhaps it is time to consider ways we can empower teachers to have more input into school policies, budgets, support services, hiring and firing decisions, and representation on the Board of Education and the Board of Supervisors.
Sometimes it seems as though the tail wags the dog, that the system we have created to support teachers instead burdens, restricts and demeans them, that my father's teacher in the one-room school had it better.
It is a complicated world, and I'm thankful that the good people of the teaching profession manage to find many innovative ways, in spite of it all, to care about children.
Linda O'Brien
Blacksburg
by CNB