THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 23, 1995 TAG: 9504210203
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 109 lines
The city's brightest middle school students soon will have new programs to spark their eagerness to learn.
The School Board Tuesday night unanimously approved a plan to establish a magnet school for gifted and talented students in grades six through eight and to beef up advanced programs offered to bright children in existing middle schools.
The plan was among several new programs the board reviewed, including a new math and science magnet program for high school students, a second Open Campus high school and an experimental elementary school program.
The middle school plan is expected to fill a void. School officials say that middle school students now have access to only a few challenging programs, such as foreign languages and advanced math and science courses. The rest of the time, they are educated in classrooms with children of all abilities.
The magnet school, to open in the fall with mostly sixth-graders, will be located in the vacant Kemps Landing Intermediate School on Kempsville Road. The building was closed this fall when the new Larkspur Middle replaced it. Eventually, the program could enroll as many as 600 middle school students.
The magnet school plan has been contentious.
Some parents of gifted students opposed the idea when Faucette proposed it earlier this year because, they said, it would present them with a tough choice: applying to send their children to a special school, away from friends and all the extracurricular activities most middle schoolers enjoy, or leaving them in their home schools with little access to challenging academic programs. The magnet school will not have a sports program, for example.
Some teachers said the magnet program would create an elite system in which the best students would be skimmed from the other schools, leaving low-achieving students with no role models.
City officials criticized the magnet school proposal as a new program the school system could not afford in tight budget times. The city manager has recommended not giving the School Board the money it asked for to renovate the Kemps Landing building - $1.25 million.
Some board members also had concerns about whether a magnet school was the best way to serve bright students.
``I think we've been remiss in not providing programs for these students,'' said board member Robert W. Hall. ``But I'm not convinced that this is the way to go.''
But Superintendent Sidney L. Faucette said he believed that there is a group of highly intellectual students in the city who would not be challenged even when special advanced programs in existing middle schools are established.
Those children, Faucette said, need an intensive school to stretch their minds. He said he would open the building next year, regardless of whether the City Council approved the money to renovate it.
``It's my opinion that we're not going to be able to serve those children to the maximum in the program we currently have in those 11 schools or in the program we could evolve into,'' he said.
The board gave Faucette three years to build the magnet school and to see if it works.
Meanwhile, Faucette's staff is developing plans for new advanced programs in all middle schools, for students who do not choose to attend or are not accepted into the magnet school.
The board also gave a preliminary nod to a second Open Campus High, to open in the fall. Like the current program, the new campus will serve high school students who cannot succeed in regular high schools for various reasons, including behavior problems, family troubles or work demands.
The current Open Campus operates in the late afternoon and evening at Princess Anne High. The new program will be during the day at a different site, yet to be determined. Eventually, the program may offer day-care services to students.
Faucette and other school officials debated whether to support a daytime Open Campus program because they did not know whether there would be space.
``In terms of the general conception, I'm on the team with you,'' Faucette said. ``I just don't have a location, and I don't have the money right now.''
City officials, facing a tight budget, are discouraging new programs.
The School Board, however, has made it a top priority to find a way to help students who are not succeeding in school. Faucette said he would find space and money - he estimated about $750,000 - to begin the program next year.
Faucette said he would come back in July with more specifics.
The board also gave unanimous approval for a new math, science and technology magnet school at Ocean Lakes High, to begin in the fall of 1996 with ninth- and 10-graders. The school will expand to include 11th- and 12th-graders in 1997.
Eventually, the program is expected to enroll 400 students. The program will cost $100,000 next year, a planning year, including money to hire a coordinator.
The board also gave a thumbs up to Faucette's proposal to transform one of the city's elementary schools into a ``traditional'' school, which will emphasize intensive training in core academic subjects such as math, reading, writing, social studies and science.
Faucette estimated that the program will cost $17,308, primarily to pay for a one-week training session for 43 teachers and 11 teacher assistants in August, during which the teachers will develop the plan for the program.
School officials now will look for elementary schools where teachers, parents and administrators are interested in establishing the program in the fall. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
The magnet school, to open in the fall with mostly sixth-graders,
will be located in the vacant Kemps Landing Intermediate School on
Kempsville Road. The building was closed this fall when the new
Larkspur Middle replaced it.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOL BOARD by CNB