THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 6, 1995 TAG: 9505060283
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
Budget battles between city and school officials have clouded the future of a key program for helping students who are at risk of dropping out of school.
Superintendent Sidney L. Faucette this week warned the staff of the Literacy Center, a highly successful school for students who have failed the state's sixth-grade Literacy Passport Test, that the program may not continue in its present form because the school district may lose the space in which the program is housed.
The City Council is expected to approve school construction and operating budgets Tuesday that do not include $6.8 million to buy Celebration Station, a shopping mall-turned office complex on Virginia Beach Boulevard, where the center is located. The School Board's proposed operating budget does not include money to continue leasing the space after June.
The School Board also has offices in the complex, and Faucette had plans to use the space for other programs for students, particularly for the city's academically gifted children.
City officials have accused the School Board of wasting space. Celebration Station is not full now. And city officials have criticized plans to use a vacant building on Kempsville Road for a new magnet school, instead of using it to relieve crowding at regular schools or to house some of the programs now in Celebration Station.
If the council does not approve the purchase, school officials would have to notify the owners of Celebration Station by May 31 of their intention to end the lease. Faucette said he then would have to negotiate a deadline for vacating the building.
Faucette said he did not know where he would move the offices and programs now housed in the complex.
``Right now, I'm praying that someone is going to have divine intervention, and that someone is going to give me the insight into how to handle it,'' he said.
``Obviously, I think they (council members) are making the wrong decision, but it's not my decision to make. It has far-reaching effects on the Literacy Passport program. It also has far-reaching effects on the future of gifted and talented programs.''
The Literacy Center has been a jewel in the city's crown.
The center was formed in 1992 to meet a state Department of Education mandate that all school districts find a way to help students who fail the Literacy Passport Test, which measures sixth-grade reading, writing and math skills.
The center initially enrolled ninth-graders who had repeatedly failed the test. Such students are considered at high risk of dropping out, because they are frustrated and are not allowed to earn a high school diploma until they pass the test.
While other local cities showed little success helping those kids, the center posted pass rates of 95 percent or better.
The program this year included seventh- and eighth-graders. Next year, Faucette had planned to expand to sixth-graders who failed a fifth-grade Literacy Passport pre-test.
Faucette said his first priority now will be finding a way to continue the current program.
In a letter to the center's principal this week, Faucette said that the Literacy Center's teachers would be guaranteed jobs in ``similar positions'' in the school system. He also said students who need the program would continue to be served in some way.
``There's no way we're going to abandon the concepts and the practices that we've grown, we've nurtured there,'' he said. ``Exactly what's going to happen in terms of where it's going to be offered, I can't tell you right now.''
Options include relocating the entire center to another site, which would be difficult considering the crowding in city schools. Faucette said he also would consider splitting the program up and offering it at several schools. Students would attend the one closest to them.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH LITERACY CENTER BUDGET VIRGINIA BEACH
SCHOOL BOARD by CNB