THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 11, 1994 TAG: 9408090149
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: COVER STORY
BACK TO SCHOOL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: Long : 119 lines
Encouraged by a drop last year in school discipline problems but still not satisfied, Norfolk School Board members have made safe schools their top priority this year.
The seven-member board, meeting at the Holiday Inn 1776 for its annual summer retreat, spent two days huddled in a meeting room reviewing the past school year and setting goals for the year ahead.
For the second consecutive year, school safety emerged as the board's No. 1 concern.
Improving the academic performance of students followed as the second priority for the new school year, which begins Sept. 7.
Board members stressed the need to instill in students a desire to achieve and a vision for a successful future.
In an inner-city school system where nearly 70 percent of the elementary school students come from low-income families, making efforts to help them develop a positive self-image is important, board members agreed. But that doesn't mean lowering academic standards.
``I think a child needs to have a vision of himself in the future,'' Superintendent Roy D. Nichols Jr. said, referring to concerns expressed about students who live in public housing. ``I don't think a lot of them do. If you talk to them, a lot see themselves dying young.''
A third goal the board set is closely linked to academic performance: making schools the focal point of the community and transforming the city into a ``learning'' community.
The mission is twofold: to allow more community use of school facilities after hours and to actively seek out volunteers willing to help schools educate their children.
Members suggested that principals be evaluated on their efforts to recruit volunteers from PTAs, churches, civic groups and other community groups. Member Anna Dodson said the administration should consider ways to provide support for organizations willing to help, such as programs to tutor children.
``There needs to be a closer tie,'' Dodson said.
Board members Robert Hicks said poor academic performance is not a problem that schools alone can solve. There are larger societal ills that contribute, he said. Churches and other community groups could help by instilling morals and family values in children.
The school safety issue was placed as a goal above academic performance after a lengthy discussion on whether that would send the wrong message to the public. The board's newest member, Junius P. Fulton III, expressed the strongest reservations.
But safety comes first, other members said.
``You have to have order and discipline prior to getting any instruction across,'' said Dodson.
Hicks said he was shocked recently after neighbors told him they planned to remove their children from public school because one was beaten up by other students last year.
Board members acknowledged that Norfolk's inner-city schools have a public relations problem when it comes to addressing violence. But even though problems exist, the public perception of unsafe schools is worse than the reality, members said.
But making safety an issue last year has helped reduce incidents of violence, board member Robert F. Williams said. But the emphasis should be continued another year to ``assimilate it into the school culture.''
Steps the school system has taken to maintain discipline have been good for teacher morale, Williams said, getting ``a very positive response from our people in the school buildings.''
``Great strides have been made, but I don't want us to get comfortable,'' Williams said.
In a plan to improve discipline last year, the School Board approved spending about $56,000. Nichols is recommending the board invest about the same amount of money on the programs that worked.
Some of the successes:
A Saturday detention hall in the middle schools. Nichols recommended it be expanded in the high schools at a cost of $53,137.
Installation of more telephone lines and telephones so teachers could easily call parents when students misbehave. Nichols recommended expanding use of communications technology to increase contact with parents. Cost was unknown.
Installation of call-back switches in classrooms, which allowed teachers to immediately notify the principal's office and security when trouble started brewing. Nichols recommended call-back switches be placed in every instructional space at a cost of about $1,000 per school.
Placing more responsibility on parents for their children's behavior. Parents of suspended children were required to meet with school officials before the child was re-admitted. Nichols recommended that the strategy continue. It costs nothing.
Use of video cameras, both mounted and handheld, in buses and schools. The cameras, plus the installation of empty ``decoy'' camera boxes, acted as a deterrent to misbehavior. Nichols recommended spending $8,000 to equip more buses with cameras and camera boxes and to buy every secondary school a video camera for use as ``roving'' security.
Statistics indicate that the administration's emphasis on safety produced results in 1993-94.
Reported incidences of weapons and dangerous instruments on campus, for instance, dropped at every grade level. That includes guns, knives, razors and similar items. In middle school, where discipline poses the largest problem, such occurrences dropped by nearly half - to 93 from 163 the previous year.
There were only nine cases of guns reported on school campuses, including five BB guns. In high schools, only three guns were discovered, compared to 10 the previous year; six were found in middle school, compared to 7 the previous year, and none was confiscated in elementary schools, compared to 8 the year before.
On the other hand, incidents of students fighting, insubordination toward teachers and class disruptions increased over the previous year or remained about the same. And assaults on staff members increased at each grade level.
Board member Anita Poston said the statistics show that children generally are safe but that an orderly environment is not always maintained. That, she said, is what she hopes the School Board can address.
``I think my children are safe,'' she said, ``but I don't think discipline is under control.''
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK SCHOOL BOARD
by CNB