Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, December 18, 1993 TAG: 9312210249
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Meeting with seven members of the Focus 2006 Strategic Planning Commission, the School Board asked questions about and listened to thoughts on some of the major themes of the 2006 final report, which was submitted two months ago.
That report attempted to condense a voluminous study of the school system conducted by 200 volunteers into a thematically organized summary.
School Board members seemed most interested Thursday in the themes of diversity of the county school system, and refining and increasing community involvement. They also touched on coming up with a way to prioritize the recommendations, and agreed to meet again in early January to do so.
Board member Don Lacy, for instance, noted that the final report includes a strong statement on diversity. But for Robert Goncz, the board vice chairman, the question is how to turn the marked differences between schools in Blacksburg, Christiansburg and more rural areas, such as Riner and Shawsville, into a strength for the county system.
Tom Sherman, a Virginia Tech education psychology professor and commission member, said the system must foster an understanding in students of the differences and the strengths of the different areas.
``We have to stop looking at difference as something we don't want to have, something we want to stamp out,'' Sherman said.
Fostering diversity sets up a natural tension, however, when a school system encourages site-based management, which gives school principals and parents greater leeway in customizing their schools.
That friction comes down to ``let us go our own way'' versus ``let us have what everyone else has,'' Sherman said.
One way around this might be to look at concentrating some resources, such as specialized classes, suggested commission member Bill Sanders, who is with Tech's computing center. In the near future, Montgomery schools might be able to use interactive computer technology to allow students from smaller, more isolated schools to participate in advanced programs at the larger schools.
But those smaller schools may hold a major advantage over their town counterparts in that they generally have smaller class sizes more conducive to learning.
In this line of thought, the discussion moved into ways the smaller and larger schools are used now as community centers and how they might be used in the future.
Riner parent and commission member Tom Kegley noted that Auburn High School and Riner Elementary already serve as community focal points for that part of Montgomery.
The challenge, School Board members heard, will be rethinking the definition of community involvement to include after-school day care, recreation and a host of other uses.
Making such a change will require leadership from School Board members, Sherman said.
Board members also questioned how the commission came up with the recommendation that no teacher face a class size larger than 20 students.
Commission member Patty Bickley said that theme came across again and again, because teachers believe it is impossible to deliver individualized attention in a classroom with more than 20 students.
One of the things the School Board will have to come to grips with in coming months is whether the county is willing to pay for such a class-size cutoff, which would require hiring many more teachers, Goncz said.
When the School Board meets in January it will consider forming another group to help carry on with the 2006 recommendations.
by CNB