ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, February 16, 1997              TAG: 9702140082
SECTION: HORIZON                  PAGE: 5    EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER 

SOME MAGNETS DRAW STUDENTS FROM OUTSIDE CITY

Jason Camp, a Botetourt County resident, is learning to fly an airplane at William Fleming High School in Roanoke.

"I've been interested in flying for years and I wouldn't be able to do it without this program," he said.

Camp, who is white and a junior, was accepted in the magnet aviation program because he helps improve the racial balance at the school where 53 percent of the students are black.

About one-fourth of the 43 students who are enrolled in the aviation program come from outside the city.

All of the city's magnet programs are open to students from nearby localities if space is available and if their presence will help improve racial balance. There is no tuition charge, because most of the magnet schools are federally funded.

This year, 127 students from outside Roanoke are attending magnet schools at all levels. Nearly two-thirds of them are elementary children.

They come from Salem and Bedford, Botetourt, Craig, Franklin, Montgomery and Roanoke counties. School officials said they don't have a breakdown by jurisdiction.

Most of the out-of-city students - 110 - are white. Most of the white nonresidents attend magnet schools with a high percentage of black students.

William Fleming has the most nonresident students, 28; followed by Fishburn Park, 26; and Highland Park Elementary, 21.

Other magnet schools with 10 or more nonresident students include: Fairview Elementary, 15; Westside Elementary, 12; and Addison, 10.

All of these schools have a majority black enrollment and almost all of their out-of-city students are white

The other magnet schools attract only a handful of students from outside the city.

Forest Park Elementary, with 91 percent black enrollment the most racially unbalanced magnet school, has no students from outside the city.

LENGTH: Short :   47 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  DON PETERSEN/Staff. Fourth-graders (from left) Will 
          Urbanski, Valerie Gibson and Daryl Porter stand in front of a 
          sculpture greeting visitors to Fishburn Park Elementary School, one 
          of Roanoke's most popular magnet schools (ran on page 1). color.