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Roanoke residents and educators urge council not to cut school programs, say proposed changes will harm students
Summary
Dozens of students, teachers, parents, and residents urged Roanoke City Council to restore or protect funding for Roanoke City Public Schools, with repeated requests to preserve the PLATO gifted program, activity buses and preschool resources; speakers cited specific figures they say would leave RCPS with a multi-million-dollar shortfall.
Dozens of Roanoke residents, including students, teachers, parents and school staff, used the Feb. 17 public-comment period to urge City Council to restore previously allocated funding for Roanoke City Public Schools and to avoid cuts that would eliminate programs such as PLATO (the gifted program), activity buses and three-year-old preschool.
Third-grade student Adrian Ostrander told council the decisions "affect us directly," saying: "PLATO is the reason I'm excited to come to school every day." Several other PLATO students gave short statements describing how…
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