WHAT WOULD REVERSION DO TO AREA PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
RESIDENTS CAN HAVE THEIR SAY

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Feb. 14 -- Residents can address the
future of K-12 public education during open meetings that will grapple
with the possibility of Charlottesville reverting to town status in
Albemarle County.
	The "Community Conversations on K-12 Public Education" will be
held from 7 to 9:30 p.m. in Albemarle County Office Building. The
dates and topics of the three sessions are:
	¥ March 5 -- "According to parents, teachers and other
educators, what does and doesn't work in our schools?"
	¥ April 23 -- "How might schools be organized to foster
choice among alternatives within public education?"
	¥ May 7 -- "How do money and school philosophy affect
student success?" 
	The sessions are jointly sponsored by several educational
organizations including two at the University of Virginia:  the Weldon
Cooper Center for Public Service and the Virginia Center for
Educational Policy Studies in the Curry School of Education.  Other
sponsors include the Charlottesville PTO Council and Albemarle County
School Parents Association.
	Designed to encourage open exchange between Charlottesville
and Albemarle County residents, the sessions will include brief
presentations and small-group discussions.  Erin Garvey and Martha
Bain, leaders of the Charlottesville PTO Council and the Albemarle
County School Parents Association respectively, will make the initial
presentation at the March 5 session.
	"Regardless of whether a resident agrees with efforts to
promote the reversion of Charlottesville to town status within
Albemarle County, the issue provides a historic opportunity to
reexamine our educational goals," said David W. Breneman, professor
and dean of U.Va.'s Curry School of Education.
	Although recognized nationally and regionally for the strength
of its teacher-preparation programs, the Curry School of Education
will not take a position on the reversion issue, Breneman noted.
"Given our strong personal and professional commitments to excellence
in public education, however, we cannot stand idly by without
participating in -- indeed without stimulating -- thoughtful, balanced
discussion of these matters." 
	At the end of each community session, Harold Burbach, chair of
the leadership, foundations and policy department in U.Va.'s Curry
School of Education, will summarize ideas generated in small-group
discussions.
	The community conversations are the first public venture of
the Curry School's new center on educational policy studies.
###
February 13, 1997

	For more information, contact David Breneman at (804) 924-3332
or Harold Burbach at (804) 924-0737.  Television reporters should call
our TV News Office at (804) 924-7550.