Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 7, 1990 TAG: 9006070334
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MARGARET CAMLIN NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Kim Ritchie, a lawyer who lives in Dinwiddie County south of Richmond, will be paid $900 a month to attend one School Board meeting and work that day and the following day. The board usually meets twice a month.
Also in closed session Tuesday night, the board approved a 5.5 percent raise for Superintendent Harold Dodge, an increase of $4,117. His salary will be $78,982 as of July 1. This year his salary was $74,865.
Earlier this spring, the board approved a 5.2 percent increase in the teachers' salary budget, but individual raises will vary.
Ritchie, who will commute from her home for the monthly meeting, will be paid $65 an hour for extra time working for the school system. Arnold has been paid $60 an hour.
Ritchie has worked for several years in the state attorney general's office as a legal specialist in education, according to board Chairwoman Virginia Kennedy.
Arnold, who still is the board's attorney of record and is now an attorney for the Virginia School Boards Association in Charlottesville, will meet with Ritchie soon to decide who will take over pending lawsuits, Kennedy said.
The board paid Arnold $3,932.50 for May, according to a school system financial report.
Legal fees cost the board between $35,000 and $40,000 last year, board member Donald Lacy said at a recent meeting.
Kennedy said "we have no idea" if hiring Ritchie will save money.
"We'll have to review how it's working before the year is up," she said.
Also after the executive session Tuesday night, the board unanimously rejected a new grievance filed that afternoon by Fran Weiss, Shawsville High School's guidance counselor.
The board decided that the complaint was "not grievable," according to the board clerk. Weiss filed her latest grievance to protest the change in her contract to 10 months.
She has been paid for 11 months as a counselor. The change means she will be removed from counseling and reassigned as a classroom teacher, she says.
Alex Weiss, Weiss' husband, urged the board Tuesday night to ask Dodge to defer her reassignment until the grievance matters are resolved.
Weiss' first complaint, which the board said was grievable, asked for a retraction of a letter of reprimand from her assistant principal. Weiss says she was reprimanded for refusing to divulge what she considered confidential information about a student.
by CNB