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

DATE: THURSDAY, March 10, 1994                   TAG: 9403100159
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-8   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium

SCHOOL SEEKS BUSINESS HELP WITH DROPOUT RATE

A group of Pulaski County High School staff members have formed a group working on ways to prevent students from dropping out of school before graduation.

Members of the group met Tuesday with the Pulaski Business Alliance to seek suggestions on how business people might help.

``When it comes down to a choice between school and work, nine times out of 10, the students are going to select work and drop out of school,'' Cindy Watson, a counselor for 12th-graders, told the Alliance. ``Our kids are going to go where the money is.''

She said the school group is asking business and industry ``not so much not to hire them, but to come up with a little more flexible scheduling'' that would allow the students to continue attending classes while holding down jobs. Some industries are already doing this, she said.

Such scheduling is easier to handle with the four 90-minute class periods per day the school started this year, she said.

The group hopes to work with business and industry to come up with incentives for completing school, even if a student finds it economically necessary to hold a job.

Flo Stevenson, who operates the Count Pulaski Bed and Breakfast, suggested enlisting volunteers from local senior citizens' groups to work with students.

The school already provides some programs aimed at dropout prevention, such as the Alternative Learning Center at Dublin and the Crossroads program for students having problems in particular classes or having to find ways to care for a child at home.

For students whose parents both leave early for work and who wake up to an empty house, she said, the solution to getting them to school might be ``something as simple as an alarm clock or a wake-up call.''

Other possibilities include providing additional transportation or baby-sitting services, she said.

``We're not talking major financial things,'' Gina Miano told the Alliance. In fact, she said, the effort could save money. ``Dropouts stay in the community and we end up paying for them,'' she said, because they often lack jobs and must rely on welfare.

In other business, the Alliance began planning for its Saint Patrick's celebration on March 19 with sidewalk sales and other activities.

by CNB