EDUCATION SECRETARY RILEY TO VISIT REGION

CHARLESTON, Mo. -- U.S. Department of Education staff began arriving in Charleston on Monday to put the final touches on a planned visit Thursday by Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley.

"We've got things pretty well OK, although his staff will let us know any last-minute changes that need to be done," said Charleston schools Superintendent Terry Rowe.

Charleston is the next-to-last stop and only Missouri visit planned in Riley's America Goes Back to School tour. The tour, which began Sunday, includes visits to 16 school districts in the Mississippi Delta region.

America Goes Back to School is a national effort begun by Riley in 1994 to encourage and support family and community involvement in education.

Rowe said Riley's visit is significant because it brings attention to the problems faced in Mississippi Delta schools. The visit will benefit Riley because he'll see how additional federal funding is used in Delta schools.

Some 17 percent of Charleston School District's budget comes from federal funds.

"I see him trying to bring attention to the poverty that lies in the Mississippi Delta, the way that education and the funds that he has helped get into legislation in the past has helped out schools that are like ours," said Rowe. "He's going to see how they work and find out if they are working."

Riley's visit is expected to last about two hours but won't include much interaction with students.

He will stop in Hickman, Ky., Thursday morning before crossing the Mississippi River aboard the Hickman-Dorena Ferry.

On the Missouri side of the river, Riley and his entourage will travel by bus before meeting Gov. Mel Carnahan, Department of Elementary and Secondary Education interim director Kent King and other state and local officials for lunch.

"We had planned to have kindergarten and third-grade classes meet him at the ferry, but his schedule won't allow for that," said Rowe. "We're going to have them outside of the church where we're having lunch instead to greet him as he comes in."

Following lunch, Riley will travel by bus to the elementary school to tour the school's first-grade classrooms before delivering a speech to fourth- and fifth-grade students.