DATE: Thursday, August 7, 1997              TAG: 9708070507

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LEDYARD KING, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: ROANOKE                           LENGTH:   83 lines

BEYER URGES BOARD TO NIX PLAN MAKING SEX ED OPTIONAL

Stoking a debate that figures to burn bright in this fall's gubernatorial campaign, Lt. Gov. Donald S. Beyer Jr. asked the Virginia State Board of Education Wednesday to withdraw proposals making sex education and elementary guidance counselors optional in public schools.

And the Democratic nominee for governor said he wants to spend up to $10 million over the next four years to offer extra help for students who fail end-of-year mastery exams in the third, fifth, eighth and 11th grades.

The call for increased remediation comes a week after the American Federation of Teachers - the second-largest teachers' union in the nation - said Virginia doesn't do enough to help struggling students.

Beyer spelled out his recommendations in a letter to Virginia State Board of Education President Michelle Easton. He also outlined them during a news conference at the Roanoke City Library on Wednesday morning as he swept through southwest Virginia on a tour.

The state board is accepting public comment up through 5 p.m. today on a plan revising the standards of accreditation.

The board is expected to vote on the new standards in September.

Brandon Bell, a board member and former state senator from Roanoke County, criticized the timing of Beyer's recommendations, calling them ``11th-hour'' suggestions in a process that's taken more than one year.

``They had plenty of time to speak and make public comment, but they chose not to,'' Bell said.

Beyer's opponent, Jim Gilmore, wants local school boards to have a greater say about their programs, spokesman Mark Miner said. ``A locality's need in Fairfax could be different than a locality's need in Roanoke. Jim Gilmore believes in options.''

Prodded by conservatives who believe sex education wastes valuable academic time, the board's most controversial proposal would let local school boards decide whether teachers should offer children sex education at all. Existing rules allow parents to choose to keep their children out of sex ed classes, but only 2 percent do so statewide.

Don't change the current policy, says Doug Stauffer, the father of twin sons who will enter the eighth grade at Rosemont Middle School in Norfolk. Every year, Stauffer gets a reminder from the school that gives him the opportunity to take his kids out - or leave them in.

``I've got the choice right now - yes or no,'' he said. ``What more do I want?'' Republican James S. Gilmore III, has come out in support of the state board's proposals, saying local boards should decide what gets taught in their schools.

Bell, a fellow Republican, echoed those sentiments, saying parents could decide not just whether their school should offer sex education but also what shape specific components of the curriculum should take.

Beyer also asked for the removal of language that would force elementary schools to choose which of two positions - guidance counselors or reading teachers - would continue to receive state funding. Beyer described it as ``a false choice.''

``This provision presents an unfair choice for localities that penalizes Virginia's children who need both,'' Beyer said.

The fear among public school guidance counselors, such as Michele Dowdy of Roanoke, is that schools, backed into a financial corner, would choose to keep reading teachers when they need both. Counselors not only help students adjust when they experience emotional problems, but they also teach study skills, help prepare teachers and students for standardized tests and offer career education, she said.

``This is a compromise of education and not what we want for the children of Virginia,'' said Dowdy, who represents about 100 elementary counselors in the greater Roanoke area and appeared at the news conference with Beyer.

Elementary school counselors and sex education should remain fixtures in public education, said Susan Gaylor, the stepmother of twin daughters at Fairview Magnet Middle School in Roanoke and newly installed head of the city's Parent Teacher Association.

A social worker, Gaylor personally supports letting parents - not school boards - decide if sex education is right for their children.

``It's always best for them to learn it at home from their parents, but it doesn't always happen,'' said Gaylor, who emphasized she was not speaking for the PTA council. ``In today's society, children do need to learn these things.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

TO COMMENT

The state board is accepting public comment until 5 p.m. today on

a plan revising standards for schools. Call 804-225-2540. The board

is expected to vote on the new standards in September. KEYWORDS: SEX EDUCATION

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