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

DATE: Sunday, October 1, 1995                TAG: 9509290136
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER       PAGE: 19   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: Elizabeth Thiel
        
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   54 lines

SCHOOL BOARD NOTES

The School Board Monday unanimously approved a five-year, $172.9 million plan to buy land, build new schools and renovate or expand old ones.

The annual Capital Improvement Plan, which now will be considered by City Council, is designed to handle rapidly increasing student enrollment in the state's fastest-growing city.

School officials said the plan, if approved in full by council, would substantially reduce the fleet of more than 300 portable classrooms that now dot school yards citywide.

The plan includes money for seven new schools, a new building to replace an existing school, eight school additions with simultaneous renovations to seven of them, new roofs for four schools and new fueling and parking facilities for school buses. Innovation rewards

Employees who want to save the school system time and money now may get rewarded for their ideas.

The School Board Monday night unanimously approved an employee incentive program, with cash awards of up to $2,500 for good suggestions. The amount of the award will depend on how much money the school district saves as a result of the idea.

There are some strict rules for the rewards. The innovations have to come from non-supervisory employees. The suggestions have to be workable, and must result in real cost savings or improvements in productivity or quality of work life.

A committee appointed by the head of personnel will determine which ideas are eligible for rewards. Students to meet board

High school students soon will have a chance to tell the School Board a thing or two.

The board in November will hold a televised forum with student representatives from each of the city's high schools. The topic will be student behavior and attendance.

Board members and students will be given a chance to hear each other's views and answer questions.

The idea came from board members Larry V. Brayboy and Mary Korving and Superintendent W. Randolph Nichols, who were asked by the board chairman to study ways to get student representation on the board. by CNB