Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 5, 1994 TAG: 9404050049
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Businesses can take tax deductions for donating computers and making financial contributions to schools.
And the school systems would be happy to get them.
Strapped for money in recent years, the school systems have been able to buy only a few computers for most schools.
In some schools, the student-to-computer ratio is 25-to-1 or higher. Students and teachers can only dream about the new technology.
It is a problem that Roanoke, Roanoke County and Salem school superintendents cited in submitting school budgets for the next year.
At some Roanoke magnet schools, there is one computer for every five students. The children have access to the latest educational technology, which has been financed with federal grants. But other schools have only one or two computers for each classroom.
It's a disparity Roanoke Superintendent Wayne Harris wants to eliminate.
Roanoke County schools also have been hard-pressed to buy computers, Superintendent Bayes Wilson said.
"With the size of the budget, we haven't been able to buy more computers and technology," Wilson said.
In Salem, it's a similar situation.
Superintendent Wayne Tripp said Salem faces the challenge of continuing to provide pay raises for teachers while it buys computers and other instructional equipment.
"We need to give more attention to equipment and the tools of education," Tripp said.
The issue has attracted the attention of the Roanoke Regional and Salem-Roanoke County chambers of commerce.
The chambers have decided to sponsor a "technology upgrade" campaign to persuade businesses to donate their old computers to the schools when they replace them with newer models.
Under the proposal, the computers will be collected at a central warehouse, serviced, inventoried and evaluated.
The computers will be donated to the valley's school systems in proportion to their enrollment.
John Saunders, who is helping oversee the drive, said each school division will arrange to buy software and will allocate the computers to the schools.
Based on the results of a pilot project at Crystal Spring Elementary School in Roanoke, Saunders said, the chambers believe the campaign will be successful.
He said 122 computers valued at more than $100,000 were donated to Crystal Spring. "We were pleased with the response that we got," he said.
Saunders said the computer campaign will expand the learning opportunities for the valley's children and develop a closer working relationship between the schools and businesses.
It's an opportunity for the schools to obtain a large volume of computer equipment at nominal cost, he said.
On a short-term basis, he said, businesses can get a tax deduction. In the long term, the businesses can get a work force with improved computer literacy.
Roanoke's new school budget includes $285,000 for instructional technology and equipment, and an additional $93,000 for a state technology initiative for high school libraries.
Harris has estimated that it will cost $7.5 million over the next five years to close the technology gap in Roanoke's schools.
He hopes to pay for the new technology through a combination of public and private funds, grants and donations from businesses.
If the chamber campaign is successful, it could reduce the amount of public funds that will be needed.
City school officials already have started to work on the computer issue. In recent months, more than 120 teachers, administrators, students, parents and others have met to discuss needs.
They have identified four areas that need attention: updating and expanding hardware, adequate and creative software, staff development and equipment maintenance.
The schools will prepare long- and short-range technology plans. As new equipment is acquired, teachers and staff will need to be trained to use it to the fullest potential, school officials said.
by CNB