ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 3, 1996 TAG: 9601030036
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SERIES: Behind the Budget
At her last Montgomery County School Board meeting, board member Lou Herrmann made one last request.
The retired music teacher, who decided not to run again after seven years on the board, implored fellow members to compensate for changes in Title I funding.
The federal program provides schools with money to hire extra teachers for poor and disadvantaged children. In particular, she urged reinstating Reading Recovery - a program that works individually with first graders on reading skills.
If the schools want to lower student dropout rates and eliminate the need for remedial programs, Herrmann argued, the schools need to catch children who have trouble reading while they're still in the primary years.
Parents and teachers who spoke during budget hearings in December also urged the School Board to allocate more money for elementary school reading programs.
Whether the School Board will answer those requests and include added money for such programs remains to be seen. Superintendant Herman Bartlett will present his budget to the School Board Thursday; the board must send an approved budget to the county administrator by Feb. 2.
Much of the concern from Herrmann and others stemmed from last year's changes in how the funds were distributed.
Funding for the federal program is based on poverty levels, particularly on the average number of students in a given district who receive free or reduced lunches.
In the past, schools at or above the district average were eligible for Title I funds. Schools a few percentage points below the average could also receive funding.
Last spring, Congress cut funding to more affluent schools and instead concentrated on schools with more severe poverty levels.
Doris McElfrish, the director of programs who oversees the Title I curriculum, said the change actually increased funding to Montgomery County - from about $890,000 last year to $1 million this year.
But it dramatically reduced the number of elementary schools that could receive funding from 15 to eight.
This year, each of those eight schools who receive Title I funds have at least one, and usually two or three, reading teachers.
To help the remaining schools - Riner, Kipps, Prices Fork, Harding Avenue and Gilbert Linkous - the School Board added a half-time reading specialist to each school.
The eight funded schools also have the half-time teacher, because Title I requires that the districts distribute local funds equally.
"Title I is not supposed to take the place of [local] funds," McElfrish explained, "it's supposed to be a supplement."
The changes also cut the Reading Recovery program completely out of all schools.
Though she understands the change was meant to focus more money on schools that desperately need it, McElfrish said she could easily use additional local funds.
"A good step in the right direction would be if we could locally fund a full-time reading teacher at all schools, then train them to do a half-day of Reading Recovery," she said.
The Reading Recovery program focuses only on first-grade pupils. It catches those whom tests show have a low potential for learning to read in the classroom before they have learned bad habits. It is the only one in Montgomery schools that pairs teachers and pupils one-on-one, said McElfrish. When a child finishes the intensive program, research shows that child maintains at least an average reading achievement, she said.
Some schools, McElfrish said, prefer using a reading teacher to work with groups and benefit more children. Other schools need the one-on-one contact a teacher trained in Reading Recovery can give to first graders who need a great deal of extra help.
Laura Wedin, whose son Karl received help through Reading Recovery as a first-grader at Gilbert Linkous, said she can't imagine not having had the additional help.
Of her two sons, she said, Karl was the one who loved being read to every night. But when it came time to read, he struggled to follow the lines of text and identify letters.
For six weeks, his Reading Recovery teacher pulled Karl out of class to work on his reading. She taught him to place a bookmark under every line and practice recognizing letters.
"It was a wonderful program," Wedin said. "It just kills me to think about all those kids who aren't getting any help."
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