
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, October 19, 1993                   TAG: 9310200292
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-5   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER|
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

MEETING TONIGHT TO CONSIDER FUTURE OF MONTGOMERY EDUCATION

The little punkin' head may be just starting school, but that doesn't mean it's too early to start thinking about how his or her education will turn out 13 years from now.

To that end, a report on improving the future of the Montgomery County schools will be unveiled at 7:30 tonight at Christiansburg High School.

The Focus 2006 Strategic Planning Commission will present the condensed findings and recommendations of the 222 county residents who have worked on the project since September 1992.

Co-chairmen Jim Johnson, a retired Virginia Tech administrator, and Mike Sowder, a former Montgomery School Board member, will make presentations, along with members representing the Shawsville, Riner, Christiansburg and Blacksburg areas.

The School Board created the commission last year. Its name alludes to the year current kindergartners should graduate from high school.

The commission's report focuses on what the school system should be like and how county leaders, parents and students could go about moving it there, Johnson said.

Though he wouldn't discuss the details until tonight, Johnson said one of the major themes is that parents want to become more involved in the schools, and are willing to take a more active role.

The commission was a local outgrowth of former President Bush's America 2000 plan to improve U.S. schools.

``We were trying to look at the whole picture,'' Johnson said.

The 25-member commission met twice a week through last fall and set up 18 task forces last winter involving 197 people to study specific areas of concern. The task forces finished their work in June and July and the commission condensed their findings - including 40 some recommendations - into a 24-page final report, Johnson said.

``We've killed many trees, but we think it's been for a good cause,'' Sowder told the School Board earlier this month. ``The winners are going to be the children for decades to come.''

After the public meeting, the 2006 plan will be available at the Blacksburg branch and Christiansburg headquarters of the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library and all school libraries, Johnson said.

by CNB