Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 8, 1990 TAG: 9004080266
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: MARGARET CAMLIN NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
To set the record straight, the board voted again on a personnel report that fired the schools' personnel director, promoted four principals, transferred one principal and hired another.
The vote was 6-2, with board members Kimberly Helms and James Hassall dissenting. Richard Zody was absent from the special meeting.
"There was nothing intentional about closing the meeting," Chairwoman Virginia Kennedy said of the board's failure early Wednesday to notify people who were waiting in another room when the board reconvened into open session. "We were just tired and trying to get home."
Kennedy said none of the board members realized that people who wanted to "watch our formal motions" were waiting.
"It was an oversight; it was not an error of commission but one of omission," she said.
The audience of roughly 13 people Saturday morning included seven teachers, a reporter, a lawyer for personnel director T.O. Williams, Supervisor George Gray and a few others.
One man was reading a book titled "Organizational Behavior" while the board met in an executive session for more than 3 1/2 hours.
In the executive session, the board discussed a grievance matter concerning Fran Weiss, a guidance counselor at Shawsville High School, who said she is being reassigned as a classroom teacher.
In a phone call Friday morning, Kennedy had asked Superintendent Harold Dodge for advice on how to improve the "public perception" of the board's practices at meetings.
Dodge responded by memo the same day, suggesting that the board return to the regular meeting room after ending executive sessions rather than remain in a back room to reconvene, take action and adjourn.
"This process could assist in attempting to ensure that persons interested in witnessing votes, certification and official adjournment could be afforded such an opportunity," Dodge wrote.
The board followed Dodge's advice Saturday morning.
Also at the meeting, Kennedy clarified the new job title of Richard Ballengee, principal at Christiansburg Middle School. As of July 1, Ballengee will be the director of curriculum/secondary education.
Three vacant administrative positions have been frozen for the 1990-91 budget year: director of secondary education, assistant to the superintendent - a position held previously by Claire Cole, who left the school system last year - and assistant principal at Margaret Beeks Elementary.
Since Ballengee will fill the director of secondary education vacancy, the personnel director's position will be frozen instead, Dodge said.
Several teachers were present to see whether the board would discuss the new salary scale for teachers, adopted Tuesday.
They are unhappy that the percentage increase for teachers depends upon years of experience: for instance, a teacher with three years of experience gets a 5.49 percent raise, while the teacher with 20 years of experience gets 5 percent.
They want their scale to be uniform like the new salary scales for principals, who will get a 7.2 percent raise at each step.
They also are unhappy that an additional step was added to the teachers' scale, which means it will take one more year to reach the maximum salary, according to Mary Biggs, a teacher at Harding Elementary School.
by CNB