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

DATE: THURSDAY, February 17, 1994                   TAG: 9402170382
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: W-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CHARLES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEW CASTLE                                LENGTH: Medium

CRAIG RANKS IN THE MIDDLE OF STATE ON PER-PUPIL COST

Craig's cost per pupil of $4,497 puts the county somewhere in the middle between the state's highest and lowest, according to figures from the county and the Virginia Senate Finance Committee.

Statewide, Falls Church has the highest per-pupil costs at $9,139. South Boston, at $3,819, has the lowest.

In salaries, Craig County, with a starting teacher's salary of $23,100, ranks eighth-highest among 10 school divisions in the Roanoke area. However, with a maximum salary of $34,232, rural Craig ranks 10th in the region, which includes all urban communities.

Salem and Radford, both college communities, rank highest in each category. Salem has a starting salary of $25,870 and a maximum of $39,470. The corresponding figures in Radford are $24,916 and $39,406.

Craig County, which has one elementary school and one high school, ranks well in the pupil-teacher ratio. Parents and teachers give great importance to this category because it deals with class size. The ratio is 14.6 elementary pupils per teacher and 11 high school pupils per teacher.

Some classes in specialized subjects such as physics have as few as nine students. But each class must have a teacher, Superintendent Dallas Helems said.

Helems said the state-recommended ratio for kindergarten through third-grade classes is 22 pupils per teacher. But Craig's ratio has not been that high for any grade, according to figures supplied by the school division back to the 1987-88 term.

The county's highest ratio in that period was 17.3 pupils per teacher on the elementary level in 1987-88. The lowest is the current high school ratio of 11 per teacher.

Enrollment during those seven terms increased, but the increase was small. The lowest high school enrollment was 244 in 1991-92 term, and the highest was 295 in 1987-88. The lowest elementary enrollment was 399 in 1991-92 and 1987-88, and the highest was 418 in the 1989-90.

The number of teachers during this period ranged from 23 elementary teachers to 28 in the current term and 1992-93. On the high school level, the teaching staff ranged from 21 to the current 24.