www.newrivervalley.com

It is with sadness that I inform you that the Chalk Dust soon will not exist.

In its place, The Roanoke Times will offer a community news blog with photos and tidbits about happenings where you live.

Don't fret, though. All your New River Valley education news will not disappear.  Just hop on over to the New River Notebook.  There, I plan to post about events and news from school systems across the region as well as national policies that might affect them.

Thank you for reading, and be sure to visit our new blog.

-Anna L. Mallory

Fred Morton, Montgomery County's schools superintendent from 1998 to 2004, was named Virginia's Superintendent of the Year at a conference of schools chiefs Tuesday.

The State Superintendent of Public Instruction and the officers of four Virginia education organizations selected him from among eight regional Superintendents of the Year.

Don Ford, president of the Virginia Association of School Superintendents, called Morton a "champion of the underdog."

Morton left Montgomery County to take a post in Henrico County schools, one of the largest school districts in the state with 48,000 students. He recently started a program, which required building administrators to “adopt” ten students not likely to succeed in school and eventually drop out. The program helped to reduce Henrico’s drop-outs from 678 to 453 in one year, according to a news release.

The award makes Morton eligible for the National Superintendent of the Year Award, which will be presented in Phoenix, Arizona next February by the American Association of School Administrators.

A few schools across the nation have decided to shut their doors in response to potential swine flu outbreaks, and the Department of Education says that's OK.

In a conference call with a group of educators, Ed secretary Arne Duncan and folks from the Office of Safe and Drug-Free schools said to follow guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control. That agency suggests a closure if an outbreak has occurred.

Montgomery County's assistant superintendent sat in on that conference call, but the school system isn't planning any closures.

Duncan encouraged schools to closely monitor students' health, which they plan to do.

Joni Underwood, health supervisor in Montgomery County's schools, said she doesn't expect much to be different in schools, but she said they'd be a little bit more cautious when it comes to flu symptoms.

School systems also have "pandemic" emergency response plans, which were required in the wake of avian flu scares.

Folks who eat at Texas Roadhouse tonight can support Falling Branch Elementary.

The school's Parent Teacher Association is sponsoring a food night from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., which means that 20 percent of the cost of each ticket will benefit the PTA, if you let your server know that's why you're there.

Students also have flyers, and some can be picked up at the front of the restaurant.

The partial proceeds method of fundraising is becoming increasingly popular in schools and other organizations across the region.

Here's a more in-depth look at the Montgomery school board's first crack at finding a new superintendent.

Montgomery County has more to offer than just Virginia Tech, school board members say, and they want to find a headhunter willing to promote the whole county to prospective superintendent candidates.

The board could start hearing from those companies soon after deciding at its meeting Tuesday night to send out a request for proposal to find a firm. It’s the first step in hiring someone to replace outgoing Superintendent Tiffany Anderson, whose last day with the district is June 30.

The vote to circulate the proposal was 5-1, with board member Joe Ivers dissenting. Board chairman Wendell Jones was absent from the meeting.

Ivers said he’s worried about what a national firm might cost and that he has already heard complaints for residents about the potential cost of such a search in “tough times.”
Read more »

Montgomery County is officially on the hunt for a superintendent.

At its school board meeting Tuesday, board members chose 5-1 to send out a "request for proposal" to find a firm to help lead the search.

A listing for the job itself wont' likely go out until later next month.

Board member Joe Ivers disagreed and board chairman Wendell Jones was not present.

Ivers said he's worried about the money and potential to overlook qualified candidates within Montgomery County and Southwest Virginia. He said the board should take its time finding a superintendent.

However, state law says that the district must have a leader within 180 days, and an interim super, which he suggested, is not appropriate, according to attorney Brad King.

Other board members said they wanted to cast the wide net, and that they didn't expect that to preclude any candidates locally.

"The University of North Carolina did not create a national championshp team by recruiting only in the state of North Carolina," said board member David Dunkenberger.

Montgomery County school board members want to get the ball rolling on a superintendent search to replace Tiffany Anderson by next week. And, most say they're in favor of using a national search firm, which could be costly.

Tonight, the seven board members said they'd review this week a proposal from the 2004 search that resulted in Anderson's hiring and plan to approve a similar ad at a meeting Tuesday. That ad would help them find a firm. An ad for the superintendent's position would likely be placed once the board hired a search firm. Anderson leaves the district effective June 30, and the board has 180 days after that to find a replacment.

In the 2004 search, the school board used national firm Ray and Associates, which cost close to $25,000.

The Virginia School Board Association offers statewide and regional search assistance, but Montgomery board chairman Wendel Jones said he wouldn't work with them again  based on a poor experience during the hunt that found Anderson.

Read more »

Teachers at Radford's Belle Heth and McHarg elementary schools got a sneak peek at the new Belle Heth this week along with their new principal, Jack McKinley.

McKinley takes the helm of the school on July 1 from Floyd Elementary. On a tour Tuesday, McKinley said he was pleased to enter the new two-story elementary. He spent part of the day before the tour meeting with his staff, he said.

You can read more about the tours and the new school in tomorrow's Current.

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to monitor the air at 62 schools after a series of articles from USA Today spotlighted poor air quality at a host of schools nationally.

Five Pulaski County schools were on the list of some of the "most polluted" schools in the nation.   However, in a report today, the EPA says it will only examine the air at one Virginia school -- Solid Rock Academy/Early Learning Center in Madison Heights.

According to the agency, "EPA selected schools after evaluating a number of factors including results from an EPA computer modeling analysis, the mix of pollution sources near the schools, results from an analysis conducted for a recent newspaper series on air toxics at schools, and information from state and local air pollution agencies.  "

I received a "media advisory" today about a school-to-prison pipeline conference that the ACLU plans to host in New York next week.  Here's some of what the union has to say.

The conference notice conveniently came after an e-mail discussion with fellow education reporters about the assertion that prison populations are based on the number of students who can't read by the end of third grade.

Some of you may remember that Montgomery County School Board member Phyllis Albritton ran for election with the issue of making sure students can read on level by the end of the thirdgrade as the priority of her campaign.  She's also mentioned it at public hearings and other meetings.

The validity of that statement is up for debate, although Albritton isn't alone in her thinking. As an education reporter, I've heard the same thing numerous times. Others apparently have, too.

But, after taking it to the U.S.Department of Education, no one can back up the statement. Some people think it may have originiated years ago out of a conference in California.

Either way, Tom Snyder with the DOE's Institute of Education Science, said this to a colleague,

"I don't think we have anything to support this statement since we do not have a longitudinal study that covers this age range. We do have a longitudinal study that began with 8th graders in 1988 and ended in 2000, when they were in their mid 20s. An analysis of this data set could give you some information about student pathways, but it does not provide any linkage lower than grade 8. We also have a longitudinal study of kindergarten students that covers 3rd grade, but only goes has high as 8th grade."

What do you think?