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

DATE: SUNDAY, February 5, 1995                   TAG: 9502060052
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PUBLIC GETS A LOOK AT ROANOKE'S MAGNET PROGRAMS

It was partly a recruiting show, not unlike the wooing of talented high school basketball and football players for college programs.

Roanoke's magnet schools used a marketing pitch to sell students on the idea that education is the ticket to a better life.

Each of the 10 magnet schools had its booth, some with high-tech equipment and visual displays.

Some magnet schools have curriculums for the performing arts, and students exhibited their talents through music and dance.

Hundreds of students, including many from outside Roanoke, attended the fair at the City Market Building downtown. Students, from both inside and outside the city, can attend free if there are vacancies.

The students like the intellectual challenges and the magnet-school concept.

``I want to be a lawyer, and I can see where this will help me,'' said fifth-grader Marcus Roberson, 10.

Randy Elmore, a second-grader at Stewartsville Elementary School in Bedford County, might enroll in a magnet school if there is a vacancy.

Like others from outside the city, Elmore would have to arrange his own transportation. His father, Steven, said he likes of the idea of magnet schools.

The number of open slots at magnet schools depends on several factors, including the racial balance in the schools and the number of students in the magnets' attendance zones who enroll.

Magnet schools are designed to help promote racial integration. They are organized around particular themes such as aeronautics, high technology, animals, plants and the performing arts.

Roanoke has 10 magnet programs at the elementary, middle school and high school levels.

Magnet programs are offered at six elementary schools: Fairview, Fishburn Park, Forest Park, Highland Park, Westside and Roanoke Academy for Mathematics and Science.

Three middle schools have magnet programs: Addison, James Madison and William Ruffner.

William Fleming High School has magnet centers for both technology and the arts.

Roanoke is considering turning Huff Lane and Lincoln Terrace elementary schools into magnet schools.

by CNB