Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 13, 1991                   TAG: 9104130391
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER/ NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium

EARLY RETIREMENT TO HIT PULASKI'S SCHOOLS HARD

Since the one-time early-retirement offer from the state is good only for employees with at least 25 years of service, the school system will lose at least 800 years of experience from its faculty and staff.

The School Board approved the retirements Thursday night.

Superintendent William Asbury told a reporter earlier in the week that it would be difficult to replace the administrative employees from within the system.

Since pay for teachers has become more comparable with that of administrators, more employees are choosing to stay in the classroom rather than qualify for administrative posts, he said.

"We haven't developed the talent so they're ready to take over,' Asbury said.

At some schools, there will no longer even be assistant principals who might be tapped for the principalships.

Dewey Wilson, principal at Pulaski County High School since it opened 17 years ago, is among those taking early retirement. So is Ray Dunavant, the school's assistant principal, and Robert Riley, its vocational-school principal.

Both Critzer Elementary Principal Jeanne Whitman and Assistant Principal June Totten are stepping down at the end of the year.

Other principals leaving are Harold Lambert at Pulaski Middle School, Jim Neblett at Newbern Elementary, Joan Pearman at Snowville Elementary and Joyce Simpkins at Northwood Elementary.

County Vocational Education Supervisor Charlie Davis and Business and Finance Supervisor John Johnson also are retiring.

So are 15 teachers: Jean Blankenship, Norma Cochran, Joy Daniel, Billie Farmer, Faye Hanks, Thora Jervey, Virginia Johnston, Edna Loftus, Anita Marshall, Irene Morrison, Lois Neblett, Greg Quesenberry, Martha Preston, Donna Thornton and Esther Ward.

Clerical employees Helen Cecil, Barbara Crockett, Louise Haynes, Irene King and Mildred Phillips and custodial employee Bernice Williamson complete the list.

Gov. Douglas Wilder's administration came up with the one-time retirement option for state and school employees at least 50 years old and with at least 25 years of service as a way to save money in the face of the state's budget shortfall.

The thinking is that people with fewer years of service would be hired at lower salaries to replace them.

About 40 Pulaski County School Board employees qualified for early retirement, and more than three-fourths of them took it.

At a joint budget meeting between the School Board and the Board of Supervisors earlier this week, Asbury said the employees whose retirements were going before the School Board represented half the school system's leadership and many of its best teachers.

Change is exciting and provides opportunities to develop new leaders, he said, but he dreaded facing the coming year without the retirees. Asbury, who took over as superintendent in January, said he had been looking forward to working with some of those who now are leaving.