ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 23, 1997 TAG: 9701230018
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-9 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Lane R. Penn, who has worked in construction in New York and as a building inspector in California, has been named as supervisor of operations, transportation and maintenance for the Pulaski County school system.
He returned to his native Pulaski after retiring in 1993 as chief building inspector for Turlock, Calif., for 14 years. Since then, he had been a construction inspector at New River Community College on a contract basis.
Penn also serves on Pulaski Town Council, having been appointed last March to complete an unexpired term. He is chairman of the town's Public Operations Committee.
He is a graduate of the Christiansburg Institute and Bluefield State College, where he studied mechanical drafting and electronics. He served in the U.S. Army from 1956 to 1959. He established Penn Construction in Jamaica, Queens, N.Y., from 1961 to 1975. He also worked nights during those years at Kennedy International Airport for the New York and New Jersey Port Authority simultaneously as a terminal services supervisor, maintenance man and baggage handler, supervising up to 240 employees in handling complaints, passenger services, baggage handling and sanitation duties.
He moved to Merced, Calif., as a building inspector in 1975 and also worked there as a planning commissioner, seeing that new structures complied with city parking, grounds, design and aesthetic guidelines.
In other business, the Pulaski County Education Association asked for School Board support in setting up a community meeting in the spring to let parents know what is going to be expected of their children under new state Standards of Learning in classrooms. It also wanted a program review committee set up to evaluate and possibly suggest revisions to school programs.
"The problem of program overload and effective program assessment is one faced by every school system," said Alice Thompson, one of the teachers presenting the idea. "If this proposal is adopted, we believe that Pulaski could be among the first to find a better way to embrace and manage school reform and to be truly accountable to our students and our community."
Board members wanted some more information about how the committee would be organized before agreeing to its formation.
"These changes - they're big. It's a new world out there when some of these things happen," board member Rhea Saltz said of the new state learning requirements.
Superintendent Bill Asbury classified some of the learning requirements as absurd, because of the grade levels at which they must be introduced. The objectives themselves are good, he said, but some are not appropriate to the ages to be taught.
"In just a few short months, we have had to revise our entire core curriculum," said Sharon Lineberry, the other teacher. "In just a few more months, the state's assessment will begin. Textbooks to support the new Standards of Learning are still only in the planning stages. Meaningful funding for training and time to plan and implement is only a rumor. Every teacher, every school professional, every informed parent knows about this, but our marching orders from the state have been ... 'Just do it.'"
"The new SOLs will bring program changes in the county curriculum," said Thompson. "Reinventing school will always be like changing the tires on a car while the car is being driven down the highway. It would be better to stop the car and change the tires, but we can't."
Thompson said the board's decision this year to end the school day one hour early every Monday has given teachers some time for training and collaboration. "Without these Mondays, time-lines on the curriculum-writing for the new SOLs could not be met," Thompson said.
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