Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 10, 1994 TAG: 9409120051
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Medium
Suggestions ranged from a new building to dispersing the school to store-front locations throughout its service area.
``School is not a place. It doesn't need to be a place, with the new technology,'' said David Bodine, facilities manager with the state Department of Education. He said the group's report would show the cost of building a 200-student facility but also would look at other options.
The eight participating school systems pay $2,500 for each of the 98 students who commute daily to the school for 7:20 to 11:15 a.m. classes. If there was a way of getting that tuition paid through the state, Bodine suggested, the localities might be persuaded to use their savings for construction.
``Two hundred and fifty thousand would build you probably a school and a half,'' he said.
Doug Phillips of Floyd County, chairman of the Governor's School board, doubted that localities would fund a school outside their own borders. ``One home base is what we need in Southwest Virginia, in my opinion,'' he said.
The group discussed splitting the school into two locations, Bodine said, although that would be an administrative headache for Pat Duncan, its director.
Wes Batten, technology director for the Education Department, asked two Wythe County students if they would prefer an expanded school on the Pulaski County High School campus or a closer branch.
``And they said, `Gee, we ride a bus about an hour and 15 minutes, it would be nice to have it close,''' Batten said. ``It may be worthy of considering a duplicate campus ... just an idea to think about.''
``We talked about how this facility should really become more of a community facility instead of being used four or five hours a day,'' Bodine said. ``You're not going to get funding if you're only benefiting 98 children.''
Duncan said the school's staff and facilities are used beyond class hours for technology training for teachers, including some from beyond the school's current service area covering the counties of Pulaski, Floyd, Giles, Wythe, Carroll, Bland and Smyth and the city of Galax. Some students even return after hours to work on projects, she said.
The Governor's School also has become the focal point, along with Pulaski County High School and the math and science demonstration project at Dublin Elementary School, with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration providing $50,000 in computer equipment for connecting to the Internet information highway. The school is working toward extending those connections to schools in its eight participating localities, she said.
``So don't go back to Richmond and say we're only half a day,'' she said.
Bodine said the state group also talked about having a Governor's School branch at each participating high school, or occupying empty store buildings in different locations.
Janie Craig, the department's director of programs for the gifted and talented, said only the newest of the state's nine governor's schools had multiple campuses and they are hard to manage.
Students also miss socialization with peers showing that ``it's OK to be smart. It's OK for a girl to come and take physics ...It's OK for a boy to be a whiz on a computer and still have long hair and his cap on backward,'' she said.
Craig said there is a tendency to assume the smart kids will get along fine and funding should all be directed toward helping those with educational disadvantages.
She argued that the smart kids will be the future leaders and should be trained to their full potential.
State Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville, said he had come around to that view, too, following a visit to the school. ``What we've got here works,'' he said.
It was Marye who got a provision included in the General Assembly appropriations bill requiring the state to look into a new school.
Del. Tommy Baker, R-Dublin, and state Sen. Bo Trumbo, R-Fincastle, also supported that. ``If you're looking at achievement, I don't think you can go to a better place,'' Trumbo said.
by CNB