ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 31, 1997 TAG: 9701310012
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: DUBLIN
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Teachers and students at the Southwest Virginia Governor's School are hoping that state legislators will make up some state funding that the school has lost in recent years.
Even if a budget amendment is approved, it will only bring the school's operating budget back to where it was before it was cut and help pay for computer network and software replacement. The school will still be on the Pulaski County High School campus in an overcrowded building built years ago as a vocational school project.
State funding for the school has dropped from 54 percent of its budget to 33 percent since mid-1991.
State money is based on funding for school systems served by the Governor's School. When those school systems lose state money, the Governor's School does, too.
School supporters want the state to set a specific amount of funding per student, rather than basing it on an index of the students' home schools.
At the Pulaski school, the size of the school building limits the number of students who can attend the half-day classes in math, science and technology to about 100.
That has not limited the scope of other Governor's School projects, including training teachers from many counties on computers and expanding its wireless computer network to add computers at schools in neighboring localities.
The state budget cuts have limited the students' opportunities. Incoming juniors and seniors used to travel to Wallops Island each year to see firsthand research on ecological systems. "Unfortunately, there's not enough money to do that anymore," said Beth Alley, a Pulaski County senior.
The financial cuts have even affected textbooks. "A lot of our books had to be rebound this year. They're all falling apart," she said.
None of that has kept students from the school from taking a national first-place award in the Junior Engineers Technical Society Competition; a first in the Virginia Mathematics League High School Competition; and other competitive honors for research projects.
In recent years, the students have also participated in internships at hospitals, laboratories, other educational institutions, businesses and other places two days a week to learn about the world of work.
"It's not the glory, what you read in textbooks. It's not that at all," said Alley, whose current science project involves working with antibodies from Virginia Tech. A lot of the research, she has found, comes down to "hurry up and wait."
She learned similar realities during her internship at Columbia Pulaski Community Hospital, where she worked with people in both the business and cardiology departments. "You really get to see what's out there and what it's like," she said. "People don't make their work glorious."
State Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville, has taken up the school's cause in the state Senate. Del. Tom Jackson, D-Hillsville, is sponsoring bills to increase funding in the House.
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF. Students endure crowded conditionsby CNBin the junior research room at Southwest Virginia Governor's School.
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