THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 14, 1996 TAG: 9602130124
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ISLE OF WIGHT LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
Public school students who lost five full days of attendance in January and four more this month are well on the way to making up those days.
Thanks to a local School Board scheduling policy that offers county students a few extra minutes of instructional time each day, students had built up almost two days, which recently were applied to those missed due to snow and ice.
That time added to three makeup days already attended - two in January and one last Saturday - leaves only five more days for students to make up before the end of the year.
The School Board will discuss just how that will be done at its regular meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, Assistant Superintendent Alexander Decker said earlier this week.
Decker said the board could take advantage of a state law that allows a request for a three-day waiver from the required 180 days students must attend each year.
``There's also the Memorial Day holiday, or they could tack on a day at the end of the year,'' he said. ``And we do have a full week scheduled for spring break. There are a number of ways this can be approached.''
Missed school days are just one of the problems the board will consider, when it meets at 7:30 p.m. in the Board of Supervisors room at the Isle of Wight Courthouse.
Redesigning attendance zones for Windsor and Carrollton elementary students is another. The board last month asked Superintendent Jane York to recommend reassigning about 70 Carrollton students to Hardy next year and another 80 from Windsor to Carrsville.
The redistricting in the southern end of the county would pave the way for opening the new Carrsville Elementary School in September. Carrsville students this year have been attending Windsor Elementary, for years one of the most crowded schools in the system.
The new Carrsville School is being constructed to accommodate 300 students, Decker said. When that school closed in June 1995, 200 students were attending. A move of 80 students to Carrsville from Windsor still would leave a few spaces to make way for any growth in and around Carrsville.
And growth is exactly what school officials expect in Isle of Wight next fall. According to preliminary estimates, the schools will have to accommodate at least 100 or more new students in the fall. Decker said growth would probably occur almost evenly in the middle and high schools, in both ends of the county.
And there's almost no way to predict how many new kindegarten students will enter school next fall.
Decker said dollar amounts would be applied to budget requests made by board members and school officials at a public hearing last month, and there may be additional requests that were not heard at the last meeting.
For more information about the agenda, call the School Board office at 357-4393. by CNB