THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 20, 1996 TAG: 9608200344
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VANEE VINES, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 68 lines
The School Board may decide today whether to conduct a hearing on the status of the Literacy Center, a program that helps underachieving students and that the superintendent wants to close.
Superintendent Timothy R. Jenney says he wants to close the 4-year-old center, designed to help some of the most underachieving students pass the state-mandated Literacy Passport Test - an exam that measures basic reading, writing and math skills. Students must pass the test to graduate.
According to the board's original agenda for today's meeting, the administration had planned to request that the center be closed. But Monday, Jenney said he would ask the board only to schedule a Sept. 3 public hearing on the matter. He said he recently learned that a public hearing should be held before a public school can be dissolved.
Center Principal Robert Ambrose, contacted Monday, said he already had begun packing up. Several center teachers also had been contacted by the central office regarding reassignments, he said.
While the center has been successful at getting students to pass the Passport exam and feel better about school, its services might best be offered in regular schools, Jenney said.
The administration's records show 31 students have enrolled at the center for the upcoming year, he said - about a third of those attended last school year.
At the same time, the center's operating costs - including teachers' salaries and money to transport students - exceed $500,000, Jenney said.
``I'm looking at the numbers, and the numbers very clearly tell me we're not delivering services in the most efficient and effective manner.''
He said he would prefer to see the center closed and its staff dispatched, most likely to high schools.
Students who had attended the center still would get extra guidance and support in their regular schools, Jenney said. The district has continued to place more emphasis on improving ``remedial services at the school site.''
Board Vice Chairwoman Delceno C. Miles said nothing was set in stone. But the board, she said Monday, always wants to make sure offerings are cost-effective.
This past school year, the center - which shares the Kemps Landing building with a magnet program - served up to 94 students, all of whom would have been classified regular high school freshmen had they passed the three-part test.
Contrary to rumors, Jenney said, his intent to close the center had nothing to do with the Kemps Landing magnet program.
Created under former Superintendent Sidney Faucette, the center initially caused concern because some feared it would become a dumping ground. Its original mission was to target would-be ninth-graders who failed the sixth-grade Literacy Passport Test at least twice.
Students identified for special education or bilingual education services are not considered for the center, Jenney said.
Given the center's success, support for it has grown. The center routinely has posted Literacy Passport Test pass rates of 95 percent or better.
Its supporters and former students say the personalized attention and intensive help it offers would be hard to provide in a regular school setting.
The pool of students it could help would also grow if one looked beyond would-be ninth-graders, said center Guidance Director Charles Flowers.
Teacher Marie Douglas has worked at the center since it opened. ``The kids we work with are the ones who never felt good about themselves,'' she said ``It takes two to three months to get through to them where they're not afraid to raise their hand, ask a question, volunteer to do something.''
Said Flowers: ``Numbers tell you one thing, but the lives and testimony of children tell you another.''
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOL BOARD LITERACY CENTER by CNB