DATE: Wednesday, July 2, 1997               TAG: 9707020560

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY VANEE VINES, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   50 lines

JOYNER TAKES HELM OF PORTSMOUTH SCHOOL BOARD

Old Dominion University education professor David I. Joyner is the new chairman of the city's School Board.

At its annual ``re-organization'' meeting Tuesday, set up primarily to figure out which board members will assume which duties, the board voted 5-2 to hand over its leadership baton to Joyner from former Chairman Byron P. Kloeppel.

Joyner, 60, was elected to the board last year and previously worked as a vocational education teacher at the former Cradock High School.

In the upcoming academic year, he said he would like to see the board take a closer look at several issues, including academic standards, the condition of school buildings and teachers' salaries.

``We'll be working hard. . . to see that this school division is doing things in schools that teachers are proud of,'' he said after the meeting.

Joyner, now a professor of educational curriculum and instruction, has worked at ODU for about 32 years.

He was the only board member to vote against the administration's recently proposed plan that, among other things, set a minimum grade-point average requirement for students to get a high school diploma.

Joyner has described the plan, which the board approved, as too much too fast.

But on Tuesday, board member Mary Curran, who nominated him for the chairmanship, said his higher education background and understanding of parliamentary procedure would serve the nine-member board well.

Board members Lawrence W. I'Anson Jr. and Louise G. ``Sis'' Walden voted to keep Kloeppel, a lawyer, in his chief seat - although Kloeppel himself voted for Joyner.

The board chose Kloeppel as its chairman last year.

Board member Ray A. Smith Sr. arrived too late to vote for a chairman; Charles H. Bowens II was absent Tuesday.

The board deadlocked on its vote for a vice chairman, with four members voting for Smith, the current vice chairman, and the others voting for Elizabeth Daniels, a city dentist elected to the board last year.

Daniels is also president of Portsmouth's branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The board left the vice chairmanship issue on hold - with another vote on that position to take place sometime before, or as part of, its August retreat. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Joyner KEYWORDS: PORTSMOUTH SCHOOL BOARD

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