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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 30, 1994                   TAG: 9411300051
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

SCHOOLS TRY TO THWART HOMEWORK HOT LINE HESITANCY

Montgomery County School Superintendent Herman Bartlett is speeding up teacher training for a new homework hot line because of resistance among some teachers.

The training, which was to have started next month, begins today at Falling Branch Elementary School.

Initially, "We didn't really know that we had a difficulty with staff members," Bartlett said Monday. After training is complete, "We don't think there's concerns that are going to cause us difficulty."

The Montgomery County Home-School Communications System is designed to allow students to call their schools and check a recorded message listing their assignments. Parents also will be able to use codes to listen to messages from teachers.

Tele-Works Inc. of Blacksburg is offering the $200,000 system to the school division for $55,000. The School Board, which approved the effort in June, has contributed $5,500 and is raising the balance from businesses and other organizations.

That fund-raising effort is about 75 percent complete, according to Tele-Works President Steve Critchfield. The system won't go into service until the full amount is raised and teachers are trained.

The county Board of Supervisors contributed $500 to the effort Monday, but not before Supervisor Jim Moore suggested Bartlett and the School Board need to do a better job of selling the homework hot line to teachers.

Several teachers have contacted Moore and Supervisor Joe Gorman to pass on their concerns that the system will mean just more work.

Moore said he'd heard from teachers who thought they didn't have any input in designing the system and are unsure of exactly what the hot line is supposed to accomplish.

Critchfield said teachers may be worried that they will be spending an inordinate amount of time loading homework information into the system. One rumor passed among teachers earlier in the fall that it would take 15 minutes to do so. But experience with a similar system in Pulaski County shows it takes an average of three to four minutes, Critchfield said. "The problem is that there's a lot of misinformation," he said.

Moore said he'd been reassured about the effort after talking with Bartlett before Monday's Board of Supervisors meeting.

by CNB