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

DATE: SATURDAY, February 4, 1995                   TAG: 9502060025
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

CITY SCHOOL BOARD PRAISES FACULTY FOR ONE OF STATE'S LOWEST DROPOUT RATES

City schools have one of the commonwealth's lowest dropout rates, a jovial and well-fed Radford School Board learned Thursday. While board members and administrators snacked on sandwiches from the Radford Education Association to mark School Board Appreciation Week Feb. 12-18, Superintendent Michael Wright returned the favor by praising the division's teachers for their role in keeping the rate low, just over 1 percent for 1993-94.

"I think they've done an excellent job. There's no substitute for a caring faculty," he said, adding that the schools' alternative education programs and even in-school suspension helped. "I'm very pleased."

Radford ranked 12th out of 140 school divisions in Virginia, Wright told the board. The average dropout rate in Virginia for 1993-94 was 3.5 percent.

The city was tops among New River Valley school divisions, where the dropout rates ranged from just over 2 percent in Floyd and Giles counties to nearly 5 percent in Pulaski. Montgomery County's drop out rate was 4.32 percent.

Wright continued the love fest with copious words of praise for the board, and Virginia School Boards Association certificates of appreciation for each member. "I think there is no finer school board anywhere than the one that sits around this table," he told the group.

Board Chairman Guy Gentry - sporting a new moustache - weighed in with additional compliments for his colleagues. "Their hearts are in the right place, and their minds are in the right place," he said.

During the short meeting, the board also heard computer consultant Bennie Thomas discuss the advantages of leasing classroom computers instead of buying them. Thomas said leasing would help the schools to keep up with the latest technology, instead of buying a lot of machines guaranteed to become obsolete in a few years. Leasing $500,000 worth of equipment would cost just over $112,500 a year, paid in advance, according to one "ballpark estimate" he passed out to board members.

The board also approved a raft of revised policies and members received yet another sizeable stack to review. Waving a 11/2-inch thick stack of policy adjustments suggested by the Virginia School Boards Association, Wright blamed the need for the policy changes on Richmond. "If you don't think there is a lot of legislation and tinkering that goes on, this is proof positive," he said.

by CNB