Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 15, 1994 TAG: 9411150117
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Medium
They went armed with a plan - 48 pages of facts and figures taken from sources such as the U.S. Census and the Center for Public Service Projections at the University of Virginia. The report showed most of the county's elementary schools are operating at or over capacity and that a majority of Franklin County students are not prepared to make career-type decisions when they complete the ninth grade.
County residents were asked to vote for $8.2 million in bonds to upgrade all nine of the county's elementary schools and $6.5 million to build what would be a crowning jewel of the county's school system - a 500-pupil Technology Magnet School where eighth- and ninth-grade students would get hands-on experience studying such topics as environmental management, satellite communications and robotics to help them decide on career paths and future education.
The referendum passed in all but two of the county's 22 precincts last week - a solid show of public support for education just a year after the county's real estate tax rate was raised 10 cents per $100 of assessed value. Most of the revenue generated by the real-estate tax increase went to the school system for salary increases.
Monday, the School Board took its first steps toward beginning the improvements. The school administration was authorized to seek bids on the elementary school upgrades that are part of the plan's first phase, set for completion in September 1996. The schools include Boones Mill, Dudley, Ferrum, Sontag and Glade Hill elementary schools.
The schools in the second phase of the plan, with a target completion date of September 1997, are Lee M. Waid, Rocky Mount, Callaway and Snow Creek elementary schools.
Possible sites for the magnet school - part of the first set of projects - were discussed in executive session Monday.
Gereau said a loan from the state literary fund for the magnet school's construction can't be obtained until a site is selected. He declined to comment on the location of any of the sites.
John Bono, president of the Franklin County Education Association, said the teachers' group is solidly behind the magnet school concept.
In another business item during Monday's board meeting, a 3 percent pension increase was approved for current and future retirees from the school system's service departments - bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers and maintenance employees.
by CNB