ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 22, 1996 TAG: 9608230023
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: N-13 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: BACK TO SCHOOL
SOURCE: MARY JO SHANNON SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
``It's cool!"
"It's so big!"
"It's exciting! I've never been to a new school for the first year."
These were some of the comments overheard when several 11-and 12-year-olds got a preview of Read Mountain Middle School, which they will attend when the school bell rings Sept. 3 in Botetourt County.
Not only will they experience a new building, but also the transition to a new educational concept: middle schools.
Diana Dixon, former principal of Colonial Elementary, will move to Read Mountain. Dixon was replaced last year at Colonial Elementary so she could spend a year preparing for the transition to middle school.
Sixth-graders will not have to leave the first floor, where their classrooms and the library, cafeteria and gymnasium are located. This provides a gradual adjustment to middle school, Dixon said. All classrooms for older students will be on the second level.
The 520 students at Read Mountain will be divided into 21 teams, and the faculty of 44 will constitute 10 interdisciplinary teams. Students will be assigned to teacher advisers and teaching teams. Teaching teams will plan together to integrate the subjects of science and social studies.
"I think we have a good setting to implement a middle-school philosophy," Dixon said. ``The school will not be scheduled like a junior high school, but scheduling will be flexible, with a lot of technology. This is the first time I've ever wanted to become a student again.''
Cloverdale, Colonial and Troutville elementary schools will be feeder schools for Read Mountain, which is near Cloverdale Elementary. Students from Buchanan, Eagle Rock, Breckenridge and some from Troutville will enter the newly renovated William Clark Middle School, formerly Botetourt Intermediate School at Fincastle, where Lewis Barlow will continue as principal.
Both middle schools will be equipped with high-tech labs for vocational technology, foreign languages, music and art.
All sixth-graders will be exposed to an exploratory vocational technical program. This will be expanded in the seventh grade to help students make career choices, and they may begin to develop individual programs of study in eighth grade. Those interested in specific trades may later receive vocational training in high school at Botetourt Technical School.
Dixon said the libraries will be networked into the classrooms so students will have access to reference materials without leaving their classroom. Elementary schools, as well as the new middle schools, will have fully automated libraries with everything on computer.
The arts will not be excluded. One team teacher has a background in drama, and the Read Mountain School has two stages - the larger, in the cafeteria, computer-operated with high-tech lighting and sound systems; the smaller with elevated seating.
Even the lunches at Read Mountain will be different from junior high. Plans are to provide a salad bar daily and to poll the students to provide menus that will be appealing.
"Moving to the middle school concept requires new bus routes, but we hope it will be an improvement," said Rod Dillman, assistant superintendent of Botetourt County schools. "Logistically, the change [to middle schools] has meant a lot of work. Equipping pantries from scratch, for instance."
Botetourt's two high schools, Lord Botetourt and James River, will expand the distance learning program, which allows high school students to take college-level courses through interactive television with Dabney Lancaster Community College in Covington.
A new person will be at the helm in Botetourt County - interim Superintendent Bob Reece. Retired as superintendent of Pittsylvania County Schools, Reece will replace Clarence McClure, who retired in June after 15 years in the Botetourt system.
"I'm impressed with the positive attitude of the school system [personnel]," Reece said. "I think they have come a long way."
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: PHILIP HOLMAN/Staff. Diana Dixon is the principal of theby CNBrecently completed Read Mountain Middle School.