THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 9, 1995 TAG: 9503070065
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
THERE'S NO MONEY in the superintendent's proposed 1995-96 public school budget for a computer lab at Maury High School. But when Maury students return this fall from summer vacation, they are expected to have a state-of-the-art lab at their fingertips, complete with 20 computers, printers, CD-ROM software and access to the information highway.
In what educators view as a growing trend, private groups are stepping in to fund the $60,000 project.
The Maury Foundation, an alumni group, has started a fund-raising campaign to match $30,000 put up by the private TOWN Foundation, a charitable, philanthropic organization founded by Norfolk Lodge No. 1 of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. In return, city school officials have pledged to pay for renovating and wiring a second-floor classroom.
With cash-strapped school systems no longer able to meet all the needs of students, such partnerships can provide at least some of the resources students need to succeed, officials say.
``If we're successful, it's going to be a model for other schools,'' said Martin Mendelsohn, president of the Maury Foundation.
Mendelsohn, whose two children graduated from Maury, said the city and the School Board no longer can be expected to do it all.
``I thoroughly concur that if public education is going to improve, it will take non-traditional funding,'' Mendelsohn, director of Full Circle, a Norfolk AIDS hospice, said. ``Private and non-profit groups should get involved. I think that's really critical, if people want public schools to get better and more competitive and produce more students able to perform in the jobs of the 21st century.''
Deputy Superintendent J. Frank Sellew said school administrators are receptive.
``I think that's a trend for the future,'' Sellew said. ``As resources get real tight and the public concern about our ability to put things in the schools rises, we've seen an increase in the effort. We've been pretty good players in finding ways to match private funds.''
Maury Principal Jake Slaughter said the computers in use at the school are about 15 years old and obsolete. The lab, Slaughter said, will expose students to the latest in computer technology, increasing their access to information and helping with scientific research, math, writing and social studies.
``This will give kids, regardless of ability, access to computers before school, during lunch and after school,'' Slaughter said. ``And it's doing something that will save taxpayers money.''
``They need that technological capability if they're going to college, or into the military or just trying to get a job in business,'' Mendelsohn said. ``You need that computer literacy to get a half-decent job.''
Mendelsohn said the project was initiated by the TOWN Foundation, which was established by the Masonic lodge through the estate of the late Thomas L. Oliver, a Maury graduate.
Oliver, a strong supporter of education during his life, wanted the foundation set up to further public education, said Alan Mirman, a Norfolk attorney who helps oversee it. Grants also have been provided for Norfolk teachers to work on advanced degrees or innovative teaching methods.
``This business partnership with the schools is an absolutely fascinating thing,'' Mirman said.
Josie Paolucci, a 1987 Maury graduate and a Maury Foundation board member, said the effort to raise matching funds has focused on alumni. It generated $5,500 in the first 10 days.
The alumni foundation is working from a computer database of 33,000 graduates. The group has made direct appeals to approximately 23,000 with known addresses, Paolucci said.
``The administration has a lot of demands on it, and one of them is not a state-of-the-art computer lab at Maury,'' Paolucci said. ``With the budget the way it is, you can't count on $60,000 out of the blue, and why just for us?'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by GARY C. KNAPP
Martin Mendelsohn, president of the Maury Foundation, and Josie
Paolucci are spearheading the effort to raise money for a computer
lab at Maury High.
by CNB