THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 7, 1995 TAG: 9504050160
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Ida Kay's Portsmouth
SOURCE: Ida Kay Jordan
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
If any school comes close to being a true community school, it's John Tyler Elementary School.
The school building sits in the very heart of the neighborhoods it will serve - Waterview, Glensheallah, Riverview, River Park, Lynn Shores and Merrimac Point.
With community schools on the drawing boards for fall 1995, residents of the neighborhoods set out last year to make the school work.
Dot Hill, a retired teacher, and Alma Hall, who's still teaching, started it all by having a Saturday morning coffee hour to which they invited parents of children living in the area. To date, they've had four of those neighborhood gatherings.
Many of the residents have elementary school-age children enrolled in private schools.
We want to get those children back into the public schools, Hall said. Both Hall and Hill have strong feelings that the children, as well as the neighborhood, will benefit from support of the public schools.
One of their goals is to get a major influx of neighborhood kids this year to get the community school concept off to a good start.
Hill and Hall tell me they have been very pleased at response from the communities surrounding the school. Many people whose children now attend private schools have become active in the effort to promote John Tyler.
``I think we're going to get some of the children back,'' Hill said.
It's estimated that about 50 elementary-age children live in the Tyler zone but go to private schools.
The Portsmouth schools suffer financially because hundreds of children who live here are not enrolled in the public schools. Money from the state and other sources is based on numbers.
For every child not enrolled, the school loses $5,270 in state and federal money. In 1992, about 1,000 Portsmouth kids went to private schools, costing the system about $5.3 million in lost state funding. That number may be higher now.
Unfortunately, the situation feeds on itself. Declining budgets mean declining schools. Declining schools translate into declining enrollment.
The folks who live near John Tyler include school Principal Bill Wiseman, who is rounding out his first year there. He has been active in the crusade started by Hill and Hall.
So far, about 200 kids are expected to go to John Tyler when it opens next fall as a community school. That's about 150 fewer than the total attending the school now. Because of overcrowding at Westhaven, fifth-graders were bused over to Tyler, but that won't be the case in the fall, so parents with some doubts about the size of classes can forget that concern.
Possibilities for Tyler kids include before- and after-school care if as many as 10 families request it. Wiseman said that special classes in music and other enrichment courses also can be made available.
The school already has a ``paired reading'' project with members of Kiwanis, Lions and Green Acres Presbyterian Church reading one-on-one to students. Also, the school has an accelerated reading program.
Friends of John Tyler have received a $450 grant to buy extra materials for the school. Other grants are being sought.
One parent of a child in private school told the Friends that she is paying $2.50 daily for the child's lunch. That compares to 55 cents a day in the public school lunchroom.
The difference in the cost of lunch could be used to buy materials and treats for her child's classroom, the parent suggested.
Wiseman said he is optimistic about next fall.
``I think we'll get a good number back from private schools,'' he said. ``There's no doubt that the education is there in the public schools for children who want to get it.''
The return to the community schools concept, he said, is ``the time for a community to take back the school.''
It does seem that if there ever were the right time for parents to become involved, this is it.
The efforts by residents in the John Tyler zone, especially those whose children are grown, are remarkable. But they must become commonplace if Portsmouth's public schools are going to continue to improve. ILLUSTRATION: AT A GLANCE
The Friends of John Tyler School will have an open house at the
school 10 a.m.-noon Saturday.
Residents of the neighborhoods surrounding the school, specially
those with young children, are invited to visit the school at that
time.
Principal Bill Wiseman and other school employees will be on hand
to answer questions about community schools and John Tyler School in
particular.
by CNB