Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 2, 1993 TAG: 9307020227
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The School Board held a reorganizational meeting Thursday, the first day of the new budget year. The board re-elected Roy Vickers of Blacksburg as chairman and Bob Goncz of Christiansburg as vice chairman, both by acclamation.
Herman Bartlett Jr., who was attending his first board meeting as superintendent, said he believes the Board of Supervisors has good intentions of saving the county money in proposing the financial consolidation.
But Bartlett said the School Board needs to be sure that money actually will be saved, and that a consolidated financial operation will be more efficient, before it agrees to go along with the proposal.
Bartlett suggested that he and Vickers meet with Thomas and Ira Long, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, to discuss how consolidation negotiations should proceed. School Board members agreed with that suggestion.
In other business, the board:
Approved a drug-testing policy for school employees that drew fire from Board member Barry Worth of Christiansburg, who voted against it.
The policy is one that could ruin an employee's life "in a heartbeat," if a mistake is made in the testing, Worth said. Worth, who is familiar with testing because of his job at the Radford Arsenal, argued that protections ought to be written into the policy to protect employees from mistakes in sampling.
The policy requires that all school-bus drivers be tested at the time of their annual physicals and calls for the testing of any employees when school officials suspect they may be using drugs.
Worth argued that giving drivers notice of tests would allow drug users to avoid being caught by quitting far enough ahead of time to purge the drugs from their systems. But Assistant Superintendent John Martin responded that anyone addicted to hard drugs would not be able to escape the tests.
Bartlett said he believes the state Department of Education will soon require drug testing for bus drivers. Bus drivers need to be tested, he said. "That's an awesome responsibility, one of the biggest in the school system."
Discussed the possibility of closing the community cannery at Blacksburg Middle School, combining its operations with the cannery at Auburn High School in Riner to save money. The board decided to seek the opinions of county supervisors and cannery users before taking action on the proposal.
"I know we'll be in for a lot of heat if we decide to do something like this," Goncz said.
Approved renewal of the disability insurance coverage for county employees with Shenandoah Life Insurance Co. of Roanoke, which bid 28 cents per $100 of coverage. The company's bid was 18 cents less than it has been charging the county for coverage and a total reduction in the premium of $45,000.
Worth voted against the renewal, questioning why the company had been charging so much in the past and citing recent news stories about problems with the management of the company.
Established a committee to study an equalization of the teachers' salary scale and named Board members Don Lacy and Annette Perkins to serve on it as the board's representatives.
Reappointed Revonda Breeding as clerk of the board and continued the policy of holding board meetings on the first and third Tuesdays of each month.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***