Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 11, 1995 TAG: 9511130030
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Standing in front of a small camera in a new interactive classroom at Christiansburg High School, Congressman Rick Boucher's grin traveled over fiber optic lines to a display screen at Shawsville High School.
The Democrat from Abingdon announced Friday another $165,500 grant from Bell Atlantic that will stretch his brain-child - an electronic classroom network - further across the 9th district he represents. Bell Atlantic announced its first grant in June, and has been providing lines at cost for school systems since.
So far, six classes - three in Botetourt County, one at Dabney Lancaster Community College and the two in Shawsville and Christiansburg - can communicate with each other through video and voice connections.
Boucher initiated the project, partly as a way to decrease disparity levels within poorer Southwest Virginia schools.
"It is in the advanced course areas that the absence of adequate financial resources to employ highly skilled and specialized teachers creates the greatest disparities," he said.
On another screen, all the way from Shawsville, beamed Superintendent Herman Bartlett, chairman of the New Century Communications Council. The council has fostered the drive to connect the schools through interactive classrooms.
Such classrooms, Bartlett said, "are here to stay."
Bartlett praised Boucher's support for the project as School Board members dedicated the Shawsville classroom to the congressman.
Bartlett had presented a resolution to the School Board at Tuesday's meeting seeking approval of the dedication.
Members of the board criticized the superintendent for not advising them before making the arrangements. The decision, they said, should be made only after area residents could give input on the idea.
But the board agreed to pass the resolution and Friday, a pleasantly surprised Boucher accepted a dedication plaque.
by CNB