THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 

                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 26, 1994                    TAG: 9406240243 
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS                     PAGE: 04    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY VANEE STAUNTON, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: 940626                                 LENGTH: Medium

VOTE SET ON CLOSING OF CENTER FOR REPAIRS

{LEAD} The School Board voted in March to end elementary school busing done solely for desegregation purposes. Under the plan, elementary students will attend schools closer to home beginning in September 1995. All elementary schools also will have grades kindergarten through five, and three special centers will be converted into elementary schools: the Emily Spong center, S.H. Clarke Vocational Training Center and the Mount Hermon Elementary Education Center.

The board linked the plan with another one called ``open enrollment.'' Under open enrollment, elementary students will be allowed to attend a school other than their assigned community school if space is available.

{REST} The School Board is expected to vote Thursday on the closing of S.H. Clarke in preparation for building renovations. If the board decides to close Clarke this month, the following changes will occur:

Clarke's New Directions Center, which serves troubled students, would not exist this fall. The district is now seeking proposals from companies or institutions that educate such students. School officials have yet to determine where New Directions students would be educated if a contract isn't awarded before the school year begins.

Nursing offices now at Clarke would move to Hunt-Mapp Middle School.

Clarke's Vocational Assessment Center would move to Hunt-Mapp Middle School.

Clarke's Extended Programs Department and Nursing/Health Occupations Program would move to the Norfolk State University-Old Dominion University Tri-Cities Higher Education Center on George Washington Highway.

Clarke's Horticulture Program would stay in place for the 1994-1995 school year. But it would be converted to a ``Life Science Elementary Program'' in September 1995.

Other vocational classes would be taught in the city's three high schools. The school district may decide to allow some students to enroll in special vocational programs in Norfolk or Suffolk.

{KEYWORDS} SCHOOL BUSING PORTSMOUTH

by CNB