ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 22, 1996 TAG: 9608230014
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: N-4 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: BACK TO SCHOOL
SOURCE: JONATHAN HUNLEY STAFF WRITER
Students in four Roanoke schools will see a new face if they have to go to the principal's office this year.
The city's school system will welcome four new principals, several new programs and a renovated Jackson Middle School when classes begin Sept. 3.
Two of the four principals will take positions in elementary schools.
Richard Poindexter will become principal of the Roanoke Academy for Mathematics and Science, an elementary magnet school. Poindexter, a city teacher for 25 years, succeeds Margaret Thompson, who retired.
Herbert Olinger Jr., a former elementary school and middle school principal in Pulaski County, will become principal of Virginia Heights Elementary School, succeeding James McCorkindale, who retired.
The remaining two principals will lead middle schools.
Sandra Puckett, assistant principal at Addison Aerospace Middle School, succeeds Paul McKendrick as principal of that school. Puckett is a former coordinator of middle schools for Roanoke.
McKendrick took a leave of absence to enter a program at Harvard University.
Helen Townsend, who had been principal of Breckinridge Middle School, will become principal of Jackson.
The school system will also add preschool classes for 4-year-olds at two schools. The programs help children prepare for elementary school.
Roanoke has 14 federally funded classes like these. Last year, local money was devoted to opening three more programs at Monterey, Fishburn Park and Wasena elementary schools.
This year, three more locally funded classes will be added - two at the Roanoke Academy for Mathematics and Science and one at the Highland Park Learning Center Magnet School.
There will be $150,000 devoted to this effort, said Lissy Runyon, public information officer for Roanoke schools.
The school system will also try to educate older-than-average students.
Parent University - a Saturday program where parents can take minicourses on subjects including financial planning for college, understanding standardized test scores and helping with homework - will be held in November.
Cox Cable TV will be the place to see two other programs the Roanoke schools will undertake this year.
A group of students at the Fleming Ruffner Magnet Center will broadcast a show on Channel 9 every month.
The 30-minute show, part of a public-private partnership with the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce and Cox Cable, will focus on work ethics and labor issues. The first installment of the series will air in October.
Although not new for this school year - it was begun last spring - the Roanoke schools also produce a monthly show on Channel 3 outlining various educational topics. The half-hour broadcasts of "Spotlight on City Schools" air from 7 to 7:30 p.m., usually on the first and third Tuesdays of the month.
The first program this year will focus on tips for parents on how to enroll their children in school and how to get kids in the back-to-school routine after summer break. It will air Aug. 20 and Sept. 3.
When students at Jackson Middle School get back into their routine, however, they will notice their school has a new look. Jackson was closed for renovation last year.
Runyon said the improved Jackson probably will be the "technology center of Southeast Roanoke."
"It will be a real source of pride for the Southeast community," she said.
Jessica Guilliams, 13, will be an eighth-grader this year at Jackson. She said she's glad there will be more space in the school.
"There's going to be a whole lot more classrooms," she said.
Before the refurbishments, sometimes more than one class had to occupy a room, she said.
Crystal Muse, 13, hopes that the new Jackson will meet more of the school's "necessary needs."
"They needed more computers, more technology, more books, more teachers - all that stuff they needed," she said.
Muse, who will also be an eighth-grader at Jackson, said she wants the school to have a little better climate, too. She said the school was sweltering in the summer and freezing in the winter.
"I'm hoping it will be a whole lot better than it was, because it was sickening."
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. PHILIP HOLMAN/Staff. David Martin of General Elevatorby CNBCo. of Roanoke installs a guide rail bracket in an elevator shaft in
the new Stonewall Jackson Middle School building. 2.- 5. (headshots)
Olinger, Poindexter, Puckett, Townsend.