THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 21, 1996 TAG: 9608211058
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 59 lines
It'll be the evening of the first day of school before students and teachers at the Literacy Center find out whether there will be such a center this school year.
The School Board on Tuesday scheduled a public hearing for that afternoon - 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 3, just before the board's next meeting - to solicit comments on Superintendent Timothy R. Jenney's recommendation to dissolve the 4-year-old program.
Housed this past year at Kemps Landing School at 525 Kempsville Road, the Literacy Center offered smaller classes and more personal attention for high school students having trouble learning in regular classrooms. The center helped them reach state standards in basic reading, writing and math needed to graduate from high school.
The board's decision upset and angered Literacy Center teachers at Tuesday's meeting who, along with a parent, a volunteer mentor and a community activist, urged the board to keep the program alive or at least postpone taking any action.
They argued that the remedial program was needed, that it worked and that the 31 current students would lose out if returned to regular high schools before they're ready.
``How foolish - how foolish - to throw that away,'' scolded Susan M. Linsmier, who was one of the center's six teachers until she left last spring.
``There are many success stories,'' she said later. ``For many of them, this is their last chance.''
Other teachers complained about receiving just a few weeks' notice of the program's apparent demise, although they said they started asking about it in April. That's about the time that school officials were considering whether to expand the city's magnet school for gifted middle schoolers, which shares the building. The magnet program ultimately grew by 150 students, from 250 to 400 this fall.
Jenney has said that the small number of students in the Literacy Center and its cost caused him to recommend it be closed and the staff used elsewhere.
The teachers already have been interviewed by other schools and offered other jobs - some staffers even have been packing - even though no official decision has been reached on the center.
``Where are those teachers going to be teaching Sept. 3?'' asked Melody Copper, president of the Virginia Beach Education Association which represents teachers.
Apparently, nowhere is the answer. Jenney said Tuesday that the proposed reassignments are just contingency plans, that the center's closing isn't a done deal, and he wants to maintain as much flexibility as possible.
Students will report to the school they'd normally attend, in their home districts, for that first day, the superintendent said.
After the board's decision, the teachers either will go to other schools, be ``itinerant'' or traveling teachers providing similar services to students at their home schools, or help with the students' transitions back to their regular schools if the School Board votes to delay closing the center for a few weeks or months.
Under the law, the program is considered a separate school, and so a public hearing is required before it can be closed. by CNB