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

DATE: TUESDAY, June 7, 1994                   TAG: 9406070073
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Short

PULASKI SCHOOL BOARD TO LOOK AT PROGRAM IMPROVEMENT

The program would provide in-service faculty training in objectives and strategies for improving school instruction, and a parent resource center for increasing parental involvement.

The meeting will start at 7 p.m., in the School Board office.

The board will also be updated on several of its newer initiatives, including how the first year of block instruction has gone at Pulaski County High School, the development of critical skills during the early years of school, special education, capital projects and dropout prevention.

The block scheduling replaced the previous seven-period day at the high school with four 90-minute periods. Visitors from so many school systems have come to Pulaski County to observe the program during the 1993-94 year that the high school has had to arrange specific visitor schedules so they do not interfere with the classes themselves.

The board will recognize the appointment of one of its members, Sybil Atkinson, to the Governor's Commission on Champion Schools.

She and Lew Sheckler, a retired Radford University faculty member and currently chairman of the New River Community College Board, are among the 49 commission members who will come up with a plan emphasizing academic integrity and improved student performance in Virginia schools.