THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Thursday, February 2, 1995             TAG: 9501310117
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS          PAGE: 12   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG                       LENGTH: Medium:   72 lines

MORE SPECIALIZED SCHOOLS STUDIED THE PLAN, CALLED ``VISIONARY,'' WOULD ALLOW STUDENTS TO SELECT FROM NEARLY A DOZEN DISCIPLINES.

IT'S STILL ON the drawing board, but Norfolk schools Superintendent Roy D. Nichols Jr. and his staff are working on an ambitious program that eventually could create nearly a dozen specialized schools of choice in the city.

Nichols gave School Board members their first glimpse of the plan at the board's midyear retreat at Fort Magruder Inn last week.

With parents increasingly demanding more from public schools, Nichols said, school districts must respond or risk being pre-empted by alternatives that could undermine the public education system.

As examples, Nichols pointed to the current charter-school movement in Virginia, a centerpiece of conservative Gov. George Allen's reform plans, and tax tuition credits and vouchers, which have been sought for years by parents who send children to private schools.

Norfolk school officials have come out against charter schools and tax credits and vouchers.

``With the threat of charter schools or vouchers, I just feel there's more we have to offer, so parents don't feel the need to have these other things,'' Nichols told the board.

Board members gave Nichols the go-ahead for the next step in the plan: working with a consultant to prepare a proposal for a three-year federal grant of up to $5 million.

Chairman Ulysses Turner called the plan ``visionary.''

Recommendations on the issue were outlined to Nichols in a Jan. 26 memo sent by Margaret Saunders, assistant superintendent of instructional support, and Thomas B. Lockamy Jr., assistant superintendent for school governance. They are co-chairpersons of the administration's Instructional Council, which was charged with developing ideas for the program.

The program would create specialized ``magnet'' schools open to any student within the district. Among the proposals are schools that would concentrate on:

Mathematics, science and technology

Foreign languages and international studies

Visual and performing arts

Environmental studies

Olympic-type sports, including gymnastics, swimming, diving and track and field

A Montessori curriculum

Grades K-8

A traditional curriculum in an environment emphasizing self-discipline, including wearing uniforms

``We believe that the variety of choices will enable us to be more customer service oriented, addressing the needs, talents and interests of our diverse student population,'' Saunders and Lockamy wrote in their memo to Nichols. ``Some choices can be implemented next year with few additional costs; others will require significant funding and staff development, and, of necessity, must be delayed at least a year.''

Nichols said last week that the time frame outlined by his staff may be overly optimistic. If fully implemented, the program would shift students to different schools, for example, and simply planning for transportation would be a big challenge.

``I would agree that we ought to ease our way into it,'' said Nichols, who acknowledged that all of the ideas may not be realistic, but they are goals for which to aim. ILLUSTRATION: File photo by RICHARD L. DUNSTON

``With the threat of charter schools or vouchers, I just feel

there's more we have to offer,'' Superintendent Roy Nichols told the

School Board.

by CNB