ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 5, 1996 TAG: 9609050060
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: DUBLIN
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
A fiber-optic line to connect the Southwest Virginia Governor's School directly to the Internet will allow other schools in the region to get onto the information superhighway as well.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has been working to get Internet access for the Governor's School as a NASA educational project, and now MCI is in the process of installing it.
This will allow Giles County to connect through a relay line from the Governor's School to Giles High School, and then from the high school using standard telephone lines to all schools in the county. Pulaski County High School will connect to the Governor's School with a fiber line, and then connect the other county schools with a wireless radio frequency system.
Marion High School in Smyth County will be part of the network, connecting through a local service provider in its area. Fort Chiswell High School in Wythe County will also be connected.
"Hopefully, we'll have our electronic community between our school systems," Governor's School Director Margaret "Pat" Duncan told its governing board Tuesday.
The Governor's School opened this year with 94 students, evenly split between juniors and seniors commuting from their home schools for a half-day of intensive work in science, technology and mathematics. Last term, the school ended its year with 90 students.
Forty of the 1996-97 students are from Pulaski County, where the Governor's School is located. Another 26 come from Wythe, 12 from Giles, 11 from Carroll, two each from Bland and Smyth, and one from Floyd.
Incoming juniors attended a three-day environmental science consortium last month at Claytor Lake and Camp Ottari, despite heavy rains that hampered the outdoor work. Traditionally, the new students have made a 24-hour round trip to Wallops Island but the board decided to try holding the consortium in its own region this year. "And we have resources around here we ought to be utilizing," Duncan said, not only including ecological study areas but educational institutions such as Virginia Tech and Radford University.
Two Radford University geologists worked with the juniors during the consortium this year.
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