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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 3, 1995                   TAG: 9505030075
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SCHOOL TO BE NAMED FOR FORMER MAYOR

School Board Chairman Nelson Harris said Tuesday that school officials believe it would be fitting to name the school for Taylor, who served as mayor from 1975 until 1992.

Taylor, the minister of High Street Baptist Church, was on City Council five years before becoming mayor.

The school system's staff recommended naming the school for Taylor. The School Board is to formally approve the choice at its meeting next week.

The alternative-education school recently was moved to Valley Court, the former Celebration Station shopping center, at Interstate 581 and Hershberger Road. It had been at the Addison Magnet School on Fifth Street off Orange Avenue Northwest.

The school for students who have experienced problems in regular classes has been revamped in the past year, and a new administrative staff has been hired. About half of the teaching staff has been replaced. All teachers now are licensed.

Moving and upgrading the alternative-education program was triggered last year by a consultants' report that said the program was mismanaged and violated the school system's administrative and financial policies. Many of the program's teachers did not have current teaching licenses.

The alternative-education school, which has 190 middle- and high-school students, soon will be expanded to include business, technical and other vocational courses.

The city's drop-in academy - for adults who are trying to complete requirements for a high-school diploma after school or at night - has been moved to the alternative-education school.

School Superintendent Wayne Harris said the school has a better sense of identity with its own building.

"It provides a sense of spirit and togetherness for the students," he said. "It is a message to the students that they are not forgotten, they are not overlooked."

The move is in keeping with a national trend toward putting alternative-education programs in shopping centers - an environment that educators believe might be more conducive to learning.

All rooms and halls at the new location are carpeted, an improvement over the Spartan environment at the Addison school.

Students are brought to the school in shuttle buses from their home schools. Cafeteria food is brought to the school.