Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, December 10, 1994 TAG: 9412120028
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
The board spent time Thursday night deciding what its position will be on some of the major issues.
Board members opposed establishing charter schools, which have been set up in 10 states so far. States, localities or school systems contract with these schools to guarantee results in their graduates, but they are free of state mandates in how the results are achieved.
Superintendent Bill Asbury said the major users of those schools so far have been people involved in home-school programs.
The board will also oppose giving tuition tax credits for students attending private schools. Members proposed changing the grievance procedure so decisions would be made by a panel instead of school boards. The boards employ the teachers who might have grievances, they said.
Other matters considered by the board included proposals to place a registered nurse at every school and to require criminal background checks on every school employee. The board is not opposed to the ideas, but first wants to know where the money to fund them would come from; both proposals would be expensive for localities.
The school system already does background checks on employees through local law enforcement agencies, but not the more elaborate and expensive national criminal checks that would be required under the legislative proposal.
Asbury said a few concerns had been expressed about reopening schools Jan. 2 following the winter vacation. But, remembering the ice storms earlier this year that closed schools throughout the region for weeks at a time, the School Board decided to stick with that date in hopes of avoiding having to keep school open for so long in June.
Harry DeHaven, director of operations, reported that most of the energy management projects in county school buildings will be complete before the end of the year.
Energy-saving projects have included installation of natural gas lines for heat, more efficient lighting, and work on windows and thermostats.
School officials plan to draw up a request for proposals for architectural and engineering firms to study school building needs in the county. A Building Needs Task Force had recommended the study, but there was no money budgeted for it this year. The money is to be included in the 1995-96 school budget.
The school system will also ask for a building needs survey by a team from the state Department of Education.
Pulaski County High School Principal Thomas DeBolt and some of the faculty members reported on the progress of restructuring science courses at the school.
``I see the time when all students will come across high school with four years of math, four years of science, as a minimum,'' DeBolt said.
Other grade levels, including a demonstration school for some 200 students at Dublin Elementary, also are restructuring courses in mathematics, science and technology.
by CNB