Facts are

Facts are

elementary

To the Editor:

On Saturday, Feb. 29, the PTO took a tour of Rappahannock County Elementary School’s facilities. Despite the fact that many parents are in the school every day to drop off our children, we have little opportunity to get the overview which the tour afforded us. Among the sights we saw and the facts we learned are:

1. The office of the guidance counselor, which measures 16-by-8, is used for groups of two-to-eight children, as well as individual counseling.

2. The library is used every period of the day, including the librarian’s lunch period. All 636 students now have weekly access to the 14,000 volumes. Increased enrollment will mean less access to the library, which is being used to capacity now. Because of space shortages the TVs, opaque projectors and laminating equipment are also stored in the library, where students must move around them to get their books.

3. Another classroom will be created soon by dividing a classroom in two in order to make room for a federally-mandated new special education class. When the school was built 23 years ago, the school did not have to provide classes for students with learning disabilities, emotional problems, and mental and physical challenges. Now it is the law.

The help these young people receive means they will be more independent and self-supporting in adulthood. Both the beauty and difficulty of public education is that is is mandated to serve all children, unlike private schools, which can be selective about their student body.

4. The fourth grade currently has 27-30 students to a class. With another teacher, class size would be reduced to 22 or 23.

5. One third-grade classroom is four feet shorter than the other two, which means it can house five less students. The class size is 21 in that room, while the other classes have 25 and 26 students.

6. The mobile units are used to the maximum throughout the day. It was pointed out that children must go out in the weather—rain, snow or