Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 25, 1994 TAG: 9410010022
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: W20 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLES STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEW CASTLE LENGTH: Medium
The two biggest changes are that schools will open before Labor Day, and Craig County High School will have a different principal.
Brian Green, who was principal in the previous term, has left the school to return to his native Tennessee. School officials said they hope to have a new principal by September .
The pre-Labor-Day opening came about because schools lost so much time last winter. As a result, it was able to get a waiver from a state law requiring schools to open after Labor Day.
Another change is that Craig will have a middle-school curriculum. Don Ford, assistant superintendent, said that Greg Stick, assistant principal at the high school, has been appointed middle-school administrator. He will fill that post in addition to his other duties at the high school.
The middle school, while not having a separate building, will have its own space. Those classes will operate in several classrooms in the high school building and in four classrooms in two modular units.
Another change is the start of a preschool program for disabled children ages 2 to 5.
Also, Ford said, the high school's vocational department will have a new carpentry class for eighth-grade students. This will be in addition to a carpentry/cabinetmaking class that has been in place.
Otherwise, Ford said, Craig's schools will be much the same as last year.
Enrollment is expected to be about the same, he said - about 670 divided between McCleary Elementary ,with about 300, and Craig County High School, with about 370. The schools will have 53 teachers.
McCleary and Craig County High are the only two schools in Craig, which is primarily a rural county.
Ford said technical and vocational classes in the coming term will be much the same as last year. They include horticulture, food occupations, nurse's assistant, auto mechanics, business and home economics for students in grades 9 through 12.
In addition, he said, there will be eighth-grade exploratory classes in home economics, computer keyboarding and the new carpentry class.
Ford said school officials hope the vocational program can add a class to train toward a career in child-care facilities.
This may grow out of a coming cooperative arrangement between the schools and a new child-care center being developed in New Castle, he said. A child-care center will be developed in a part of the former New Castle High School building, and the school administration plans to cooperate in that program.
by CNB