Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 24, 1994 TAG: 9402240215
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BONNIE V. WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Using a back-door approach, Roanoke-area lawmakers on Tuesday quietly amended two bills that give school boards in the localities the authority to open schools early.
Pre-Labor Day opening would have to be unanimously endorsed by the boards for it to take place, according to the bills.
Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County, called the measures "last-minute sneak attacks" to give flexibility to local school officials.
Already, efforts by Sen. Elliot Schewel, D-Lynchburg, to let every school board determine its own opening day has been defeated, 7-6, in the Senate Education and Health Committee.
The major opponents have been tourism and travel interests, who depend on school-age workers during the summer season.
The statewide effort dead, Dels. Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County, and Clifton "Chip" Woodrum, D-Roanoke, had Bell attach the local enabling amendments to a pair of charter bills before the Senate Local Government Committee.
Bell is a committee member.
The amendments giving Roanoke and Roanoke County school boards that authority will be up for final approval today in the full Senate.
"I've gotten a lot of letters about letting our schools do this because of all the days lost this year because of the weather," Bell said. "The farther southwest you go, the more you need this kind of flexibility."
He said Roanoke County school officials also requested the action.
"If schools open before Labor Day, then maybe students won't have to lose their spring break or attend well into June and the heat of the summer" to make up for winter weather closings, he said.
Frank Thomas, chairman of the Roanoke County School Board, said school officials have discussed the pre-Labor Day opening issue with Cranwell and support the measure.
"We are in full concurrence with what is being done," Thomas said Wednesday. "We see this as one opportunity to get permission to open school before Labor Day."
Because the provision for an earlier opening day is an amendment to the county charter, Thomas said, there should be less opposition to it.
Wendy O'Neil, vice chairwoman of the Roanoke School Board, said she is "100 percent in favor of the amendment."
O'Neil said the earlier defeat of the pre-Labor Day opening was disappointing. "To put the need for children in the labor force ahead of education is unconscionable," she said.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994
by CNB