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

DATE: FRIDAY, November 11, 1994                   TAG: 9411110039
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BETTER SCHOOLS CALLED A PROFITABLE GOAL FOR ALL

The partnerships between businesses and schools in the Roanoke Valley offer an example that should be copied throughout Virginia, state Secretary of Education Beverly Sgro said at a conference Thursday.

Business and schoo l partnerships are one of the most crucial ingredients in making a successful educational program, Sgro said.

Conversely, without a good educational system, economic development comes to a standstill, she said. "It's critical," Sgro told business operators in the audience, "that we have your support in the area of education."

Sgro, former dean of students at Virginia Tech, was the keynote speaker at a business and education forum at the Roanoke Airport Marriott hotel sponsored by chambers of commerce, education groups and school systems.

She said Gov. George Allen is dedicated to improving education, but government does not have all the answers and needs the private sector's help.

The direction of education needs to be changed, Sgro said. Past efforts have focused too much on curing social ills, she said, and not enough on basic academics.

It's not acceptable, Sgro said, that one in four Virginia high school graduates have to take remedial classes in math or reading when they enter college.

Sgro heads Allen's committee that will recommend changes in Virginia education. It is narrowing its focus to three basic issues, she said: setting high academic standards, seeing more parental involvement and making the schools safe.

"We want in Richmond to set the standards ... and then we want to move out of the way ... and let the teachers teach," Sgro said.

"Greater family involvement [in the schools], this is what we are striving for in Virginia," Sgro said.

Along that line, a Chamber of Commerce education committee has asked businesses to free each of their workers to spend at least four hours a year visiting or doing volunteer work in area schools.

Chip Snead, Roanoke's director of public safety and chairman of a chamber study group on ridding the schools of violence and drugs, said business employees can make real contributions to the schools.

One could be sponsoring youngsters for programs that prepare them for school, said Lorraine Lange, chairman of a chamber group looking at ways to make sure young children are ready to learn when they enter school.

Programs such as Head Start help prepare children for school, but are short of funding. Two hundred children are on waiting lists for those programs.