Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 14, 1995 TAG: 9502140107
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Medium
Franklin County voters, who approved funding for the center in a bond referendum in November, know it simply as a technology magnet school.
But school administrators are discouraging the use of the words ``magnet school'' to describe the project.
Mainly because it's not a magnet school, according to Superintendent Len Gereau.
In fact, if the center is built as Gereau and School Board members envision, there won't be another facility like it in the state.
The board on Monday continued to lay the groundwork for the center, awarding bids to two companies: one to plan and design the school itself; the other to make sure it is equipped with the most up-to-date and wide-reaching technology available in a flooded market.
Roanoke's Hayes Seay Mattern & Mattern will do the basic design and construction administration work. Its fee will be 71/4 percent of the building's budget, now estimated at close to $5 million.
Thomas Educational Consulting Inc. of Richmond will be the school system's computer guru. TECI's contract calls for a $500 per day fee. Gereau said the agreement spells out the number of days TECI will work: up to 30 this school year and up to 50 in 1995-96.
TECI consults with 12 other Virginia public school divisions, including Radford's.
The company will assist in writing hardware and software specifications, develop school system ideas into cost-effective plans, make product recommendations and screen equipment before it is purchased.
TECI also will be involved with technology improvements at nine elementary schools in the county.
Gereau, who wants to link all the county schools via fiber optics, has big plans for the technology center.
Although preliminary drawings have yet to be created, his own mental image of the school is clear - a series of laboratories surrounding a common area where students would gather for group lectures.
As Gereau sees it, the common area also would serve as a food court and be open for public use as well.
The laboratories, according to bond referendum information distributed last year, will be a hands-on place of learning where students can study subjects such as robotics and automotive design. Technology will be combined with traditional academics; for example, students would learn robotics through a curriculum rich in basic subjects such as math, science and language.
The school will serve 500 students - 250 eighth-graders and 250 ninth-graders. All eighth-grade students would spend one semester at the technology center, with a maximum of 250 ninth-grade students selected for a full-year program.
A site for the school - scheduled for completion late next year - hasn't been chosen.
In another item Monday, the board heard from Union Hall resident and possible state Senate candidate Jerry Johnson, who asked for a ``constitutionally specific'' written explanation as to why he was not allowed to participate in a student-sponsored religious activity at Franklin County High School.
Johnson said members of a county Gideon organization were invited by a student to participate in a daily prayer meeting held at the school's flagpole. Johnson, who is a Gideon, said he went to the school Jan. 18 to participate. On conferring with the school's principal, however, he was told he could not.
Johnson said he went to the school as an individual, not as a member of the Gideons.
The issue will be passed on to the board's attorney for review, Gereau said.
During a break in the meeting, Johnson said he has expressed interest in seeking the Republican nomination to run against state Sen. Virgil Goode, D-Rocky Mount, in November.
Johnson ran unsuccessfully as an independent in the 9th District House of Delegates race won by Republican Allen Dudley two years ago.
Memo: NOTE: SHorter version ran in Metro edition.