ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, July 13, 1996 TAG: 9607150035
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Pulaski County school officials are counting on the Board of Supervisors to help with building needs that must be addressed quickly.
The School Board will ask the county to allow some money left at the end of the 1995-96 year to be rolled over into the coming school year for some of the work, and will seek some additional county funds.
About $281,754 will be left on the books when the board closes them for this year, with $43,594 going toward facilities funding, leaving $138,160 for capital needs. The board is also asking to have $100,000 for textbooks carried over, in a separate fund.
The board Thursday night approved a $69,900 contract with Pulaski Tinning for emergency repairs to the Pulaski County High School gymnasium roof, on the condition that the supervisors reappropriate the funds. Economy Roofing recently completed roof repairs over the school's commons, which had been leaking badly.
Another big capital cost will be a mobile classroom for Snowville Elementary School, costing $34,330 not including site preparation.
The funds left from this year will cover those two projects but, unless some more money is added by the supervisors, "all other projects would have to come to a halt," Superintendent Bill Asbury said.
Asbury also told the School Board on Thursday that the county had won a $52,050 Tech Prep federal grant for a program aimed at showing work skills acquired by students.
The program will correlate the skills of 10 students in the coming year with the needs of local industries. The idea is to be able to do this for all students eventually, said Associate Superintendent Phyllis Bishop, who prepared the grant application.
Asbury said the program would serve as a model for other school districts. "It's good for our employers as well as our kids. They're going to have certain assurances they haven't had before," he said, about skill levels of high school graduates.
Board member Jeff Bain expressed concern about the low number of teachers upgrading their keyboarding skills, under a program to make sure they can make full use of new computer technologies.
"I think it has to be understood that this board's willingness to work with the professional staff has to be a two-way street," Bain said. "That's as nice a way as I can put it."
Beth Nelson, another member, said the board has been stressing the growing importance of technology in education. She said new teachers should have the core knowledge needed to use it.
Dublin parent Terri Fitzwater expressed concern to the board over students getting only a half-credit for physical conditioning classes, when other non-academic classes such as color guard carry a full credit.
School officials may want to avoid having members of school athletic teams pile up an inordinate number of credits for physical fitness classes but, she said, "there are kids wanting to take that class that are not athletes." Students want to learn to use the fitness machines in the school's fitness center to build healthy bodies as well as healthy diets and other parts of the class, she said.
She requested the board to act on the policy before school starts for the 1996-97 year. The board will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday to update its policies overall for the coming year.
LENGTH: Medium: 65 linesby CNB