Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 29, 1994 TAG: 9412290088
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The city will spend $6.7 million in the next school year for teachers to have classes smaller than the state-mandated sizes at all grade levels. It will have 163 more teachers than required by the state.
The city will spend another $1 million for 28 more principals, assistant principals, librarians and other school employees than required.
And the full-day kindergarten program in all elementary schools will cost the city $1.3 million more than the state-mandated half-day program. The city has 32 more kindergarten teachers than required by the state.
Many educators believe that the state mandates, called the standards of quality, are too low.
School systems that hire teachers, principals and other employees above the state standards have to absorb the additional cost.
Many school systems in Western Virginia have more teachers and smaller classes than the state mandates. But they have not released their preliminary school budgets to show their costs for the next school year.
Superintendent Wayne Harris said Roanoke's class sizes are significantly lower than the state-mandated maximum in middle and high schools.
The state says middle school classes must have 25 or fewer students. Roanoke's middle school classes average 18.4 students.
In high school, the state standard is an average of 24.9 students. Roanoke's high school classes average 18.7 students, about the same as primary classes. Only in fourth and fifth grades do the classes average more than 20 students.
Harris said three-fourths of the proposed $77.6 million budget is required to meet state standards. The remaining one-fourth pays for programs, teachers and employees in excess of the standards.
The budget calls for the school system to keep participating in a school disparity funding program, through which it will receive $1 million to reduce primary-class size in schools with a high percentage of free-lunch students.
As a result of the state incentive funds, the primary-grade class size at elementary schools where more than half the students get free lunches has been reduced to 18-to-1, and the school system's overall pupil-teacher ratio in kindergarten through third grade is 18.3-to-1.
The city hired 30 additional teachers this year to comply with the disparity mandates, and it will hire 12 more in the next year.
Harris has recommended hiring 10 instructional aides to help teachers with large classes in schools that do not qualify for disparity funds. The program will be expanded by eight to 10 positions a year over the next three years, he said.
As a result of the school system's effort to reduce class size, Roanoke now ranks fourth among the state's major urban areas in teachers per 1,000 students.
Roanoke has 74.3 teachers per 1,000 students. It is topped only by Alexandria (85.1), Richmond (76.4) and Lynchburg (76.1).
Harris said Roanoke will have to hire more teachers as enrollment increases after declining during the 1980s. The enrollment is 12,850 and has grown by 175 during the past four years.
Enrollment is expected to continue increasing by 35 to 60 students a year, with the growth occurring in elementary grades. The increase can be attributed to a rise in the birth rate, according to school administrators.
Roanoke's school population is becoming more diversified. Fifty-nine percent of the students are white, and 39 percent are black.
About 43 percent of the students are eligible for free lunches, and 5 percent qualify for reduced-price lunches.
by CNB