THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 12, 1995 TAG: 9502150662
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Vanee Vines
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
The Suffolk School Board met in regular session Thursday.
These are the highlights from that meeting:
THE BUDGET
The board was asked to review pay-raise proposals for substitute teachers and to consider money to expand assistance for at-risk pupils at an elementary school.
William H. Goodman Sr., representing the Substitute Teachers Association, asked the board to review a pay increase for short-term substitute teachers proposed by Superintendent Beverly B. Cox III. Under Cox's plan, short-term substitutes without a college degree would get a $2-a-day raise, from $37 to $39. The rate for short-term substitutes with degrees would remain $45 per day. All long-term substitutes would get $5 more per day, for a pay range of from $42 to $71.
The substitute-teachers group sought $5 more per day for all substitutes, Goodman said. He also asked the board to consider giving substitutes travel pay.
Southwestern Elementary teacher Paula Galloway urged the board to earmark money to expand a pilot project at the school. The project, which now serves a dozen students, targets first-graders at risk of academic failure and monitors their progress through third grade. Instruction is tailored to each student. Galloway, who oversees the project, did not request a specific dollar amount.
The superintendent's proposed operating budget for 1995-96 totals $49.9 million, or 3.6 percent more than the previous operating budget. The figure includes $130,000 more from the city.
Cox's spending plan was based on Gov. George F. Allen's proposed state budget. The General Assembly, however, may restore education money Allen had planned to cut.
The board is scheduled to adopt a budget March 16 and present it to the City Council in April.
BLOCK SCHEDULING
Three administrators gave the board a glimpse of the district's plan to start so-called block scheduling at both high schools next school year. Under the plan, some class periods would be extended to 92 minutes.
The idea, they said, is to provide time for more creative projects - such as chemistry experiments - that are difficult to accommodate within the typical 46-minute class period. Public schools across the country increasingly have turned to block scheduling as a way to stretch classes' potential.
School officials say the change also would allow educators to experiment with a wider range of teaching strategies. The district has investigated the switch for more than two years, Assistant Superintendent Joyce Trump told the board.
CONTRACTS APPROVED
The board unanimously voted to hire The Moseley McClintock Group, a Virginia Beach architectural firm, to design the elementary school planned to open in September 1996 in the Harbour View area. The contract has a $300,000 cap.
The board hired Hickman-Ambrose Inc. of Chesapeake to conduct a heating and air-conditioning study on nine schools that do not have air conditioning systems. The contract is worth nearly $58,000.
The administration has proposed spending nearly $4.4 million to install air conditioning at:
Booker T. Washington Elementary
Driver Elementary
Florence Bowser Elementary
Mount Zion Elementary
Robertson Elementary
Southwestern Elementary
Forest Glen Middle
John F. Kennedy Middle and
John Yeates Middle schools. by CNB