ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, November 23, 1996 TAG: 9611250130
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: COMPILED BY PAUL DELLINGER AND LISA APPLEGATE
Help in teaching children to read and improvements to school buildings topped the list of requests by Montgomery County parents and teachers Thursday night. About 25 people came to the County School Board's only public hearing before it begins budget deliberations for the 1997-98 school year.
Several elementary teachers asked for additional reading specialists to bring slow readers up to speed, especially in the lower grades. Joy White, a first-grade teacher at Gilbert Linkous Elementary School in Blacksburg, said she has to juggle several students who read at a fifth-grade level, along with five who are still struggling to read basic words.
Teachers said that was true in the four elementary schools - Linkous, Kipps, Riner and Harding Avenue - that do not receive federal funding to pay for a full-time reading specialist.
School Board members were encouraged to continue fighting for three new schools, but said trailers were needed, too, as a temporary fix to overcrowding. Shawsville High School teacher Craig Hickson described how classes are sometimes held in the hallway because auditorium or gymnasium space is not available.
Needs for updated vocational education equipment, higher teacher salaries and financial assistance for athletic teams and coaches also were mentioned.
The hearing, along with a presentation by Director of Finance Dan Morris about the school system's budget, was videotaped and is available at each of the four county high schools.
Dublin Town Council has assigned three offices in its new town hall to Pulaski County for use as a branch office. The building is now under construction in the Dublin Town Center.
The Pulaski County Board of Supervisors has approved $100,000 toward the construction. The location of branch county offices in the Dublin building will allow residents of the eastern part of the county access to offices without having to travel to the county seat in Pulaski. Council voted approval of the office assignments Thursday night.
The Radford School Board decided its school-improvement priorities for future capital improvement projects, which include renovation of the biology labs and the east wing of Radford High School and improvements to McHarg and Belle Heth elementary schools.
City Council will review these and other agency requests in February. The council does not set a spending amount each year, but rather selects certain projects and includes them in the five-year capital improvement funding plan.
The board also planned a work session to discuss the 1997-98 school year budget on Dec. 4, beginning at 10 a.m. at the School Board office on Wadsworth Street.
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