THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 9, 1995 TAG: 9503080174
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: COVER STORY
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 126 lines
With his proposed 1995-96 budget, Schools Superintendent Roy D. Nichols Jr. is beginning to make his mark.
The budget encompasses three guiding principles that Nichols and the School Board have embraced since Nichols arrived from Marietta, Ga., in the summer of 1993 to take charge of the city's schools: academic excellence, safety and discipline, and community involvement.
``Our school system is attempting to become more customer-oriented,'' School Board Chairman Ulysses Turner said. ``We very intently listen to our parents and students and try to provide them with the services they want.''
Following are descriptions of some new programs included in Nichols' budget to meet community demands:
International Baccalaureate Program: Directed from headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the program was developed in the 1960s, partly in response to foreign ambassadors who wanted their sons and daughters to receive a topnotch education that would transfer across international boundaries.
Students gain an edge because some universities give them credit for completing the class work.
``They study subjects from a global perspective,'' said Margaret B. Saunders, assistant superintendent for instruction. ``These students have access to Yale, Harvard, the Sorbonne (in Paris), the prestigious educational institutions around the world, not just in the U.S.''
Nichols included $50,000 in the budget for teacher training and textbooks. Saunders estimated that two years of preparation will be needed before students begin studying for the diploma.
The first class at Granby probably would include about 30 students. It eventually would become a ``magnet'' program and draw qualified students from high schools citywide.
School Board member Robert F. Williams aggressively pursued the idea, first suggesting it during a board retreat last summer.
``I believe that it will offer a challenging program of academic excellence greater than any single program we have at this time,'' Williams said.
PRIME program: PRIME, an acronym for Public School Restructuring for Innovative Mainstream Education, is a curriculum based on work by Old Dominion University education professor Dwight W. Allen.
PRIME is touted as an ``urban model'' for education reform, geared toward the bottom third of academic achievers. The budget includes $50,000, primarily for training teachers at six schools selected to test the program.
The program will be eased into the system over several years at six schools: Fairlawn, St. Helena and Little Creek elementary schools; Azalea Gardens and Lake Taylor middle schools; and Lake Taylor High.
A key component of PRIME is an accelerated course of studies that would enable students to finish state graduation requirements by the end of 10th grade. They could take college courses the next two years, essentially getting two free years of college instruction, Nichols said.
The program also emphasizes community service, foreign languages and a cooperative learning environment.
Algebra readiness initiative for grades four and five: The budget includes $6,370 for supplies and teacher training to prepare elementary students for higher-level math courses.
This attempt to expose kids to abstract mathematical concepts at a younger age recognizes the growing importance of technology and the jobs it will produce, Nichols said.
Algebra classes, once limited to high school students, in the past year have become available to seventh- and eighth-graders in some Norfolk middle schools.
``My goal, sometime in the near future,'' Nichols said, ``is to require every kid to take algebra before they graduate.''
Pacesetter pre-calculus: This program, developed by the College Board and Educational Testing Service, will attempt to interest more high school students in taking advanced math. The budget contains $13,500 for materials and training.
``We want to open it up to more females and people intimidated by math,'' Saunders said.
In-school suspension program: Initiated over the past two years in middle and high school, the program has been effective in dealing with minor discipline problems, school officials say. It keeps kids in school rather than sending them home on a short-term suspension.
Nichols included $144,645 to expand the program into the system's 35 elementary schools. The money will be used to hire part-time paraprofessional staff to monitor students in the program.
Elementary school principals said in-school suspension is needed.
``We're finding more and more kids coming to us without the social skills to behave properly in school,'' Nichols said. ``They need a place to go for a `time-out' with supervision.''
Saturday detention: This program, begun in 1994 in middle schools, has proved an effective deterrent to misbehavior, Nichols said. Kids hate having to come to school on Saturdays as punishment, he said, which has resulted in fewer discipline problems.
The budget has $21,665 to expand it to high schools.
Evening school: With funding of $309,903, this is one of the most ambitious new programs in the budget. It is patterned after a successful evening school for high school students at Princess Anne High in Virginia Beach. It will have room for about 100 students at Madison Career Center, which now runs a program for students who have been charged with crimes and are on probation or parole.
Nichols envisions the evening school as a place that can accommodate kids who might otherwise be expelled. But it also could serve teenage mothers who can't find child care during the day and other kids who, for whatever reason, can't make it in regular daytime classes.
``We see tremendous possibilities here,'' Nichols said.
This attempts to address a shortage of alternative programs for problem students. Last year, the system could provide an alternative setting for only a third of the 944 students expelled or placed on long-term suspension.
Security initiative: Nichols has budgeted $75,000 to increase safety in schools. The money will be used to buy surveillance cameras for high school parking lots, two-way radios for elementary school principals and video systems to monitor cafeterias and hallways in secondary schools.
The presence of video cameras has been effective, Nichols said. To hold down expenses, some schools successfully have used decoy devices mounted in hallways to fool students into thinking cameras are watching.
``Just the presence of a camera, or of them thinking there is a camera in a little black box, has improved student behavior tremendously,'' Nichols said.
Teacher training resource center: With $25,000, Nichols wants to expand a training center for special education teachers at Meadowbrook to serve all teachers. The money would be used to provide materials, supplies and staff support.
Technology initiatives: Nichols includes money to match state funds to expand computer technology into middle and elementary schools. He set aside $227,895 for elementary schools to automate media centers and create a computer network among all the schools. There is $185,000 for middle schools to automate their media centers. by CNB