Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 14, 1995 TAG: 9510160017
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
The school's Science Department is completing the installation under the supervision of David Carroll of the science faculty. The station will become part of the national weather system and be linked with a sister station in Blacksburg.
Two other science faculty members, Barbara Layman and Bill Benson, are working on the project.
Superintendent Bill Asbury told the county School Board Thursday night that Appalachian Power Co. workers set up the 20-foot pole on which the weather instrumentation will be mounted. Science teachers will train student spotters to work with it next semester.
"Obviously, this has great meaning for our science department," Asbury said. "Plus, I plan to use it to make some decisions early in the morning on our buses."
The board approved a computer-use policy covering the fine points of on-line etiquette and making sure school computers are used for educational work. "It is a first step in a new direction for us," Asbury said.
"What we're going to do is ask each student to sign one of these," said board Chairman Ron Chaffin.
The board also approved a policy governing acceptable use for Internet access. A parent or guardian will be asked to sign it, but Asbury stressed that it has nothing to do with the controversial and now discontinued parent contracts.
"This is simply letting everybody know there is a need for some kind of control on the Internet," he said, adding that there is some "unacceptable stuff out there."
Asbury foresees trouble in the near future with servicing and replacing software for the school system's computers as well as those used in business, industry and elsewhere.
"I think it's a serious problem that we're going to see more of," he said. School officials have changed software managers for their computer system but, he said, "we can't find a support system to keep up with it. ... We have to depend on the industry to support us, like having replacement parts and equipment and software."
He said the computer industry is turning out its software programs in such rapid succession that there is little support for a particular system before a new version comes out.
"They're producing things in batches," he said. "You get stuck in between batches sometimes. ... We're all buying computers. ... We're all getting on the network. But there's a big, big void there in the technicians to keep it afloat."
Asbury said it could become more expensive to hire such a technician than a teacher or a principal "because they're rare ... You can find a social studies teacher but you can't find a technician." It is not a situation he likes, because teachers are the heart of an educational system.
Isabel Berney, the school system's director of research, media and technology, said the state has provided $300,500 to bring the county's elementary school libraries up to a foundation level in computer communications.
She said the funding requires that the school system provide a match of $15,000 worth of in-service work. Pulaski schools have already surpassed that requirement since July.
"Our biggest problem is the infrastructure of our buildings, and the electricity we'll be expected to provide," Berney said. The buildings are old and would need rewiring to avoid overloading limited classroom outlets.
That means some of the money will have to be spent on rewiring, rather than for improved computer access to information sources, she said. "They want every library to have a communication station, but our libraries don't have telephone lines," she said.
The school system is working with the Southwest Virginia Governor's School to get direct computer connections for Pulaski County High School and Dublin Elementary School through a NASA grant to the Governor's School for a computer system.
"We know first we have to get the high school on line and the Governor's School on line, but the problem again is infrastructure," she said.
The board also got a report on the new emphasis on assessing where pupils from kindergarten to fifth grade are in literacy education.
Asbury predicted the assessments would show that some children had been mistakenly classified as learning-disabled, when actually they had simply not mastered basic skills before moving on to another level.
"You are going to be amazed at the results we're going to get in a few years," he told the board. "I don't believe we have that many LD kids."
by CNB