Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 21, 1992 TAG: 9202210101
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
HOW WOULD YOU ASSESS FRANK TOTA AS SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT?
MUSSER: "As for his knowledge on how a school system works, I think he is very good. My biggest problem with him is that he should be seen and heard less often. A school superintendent should not take sides in a controversy. He has been critical of council, and some of us have been critical of him. If he would stay out of politics and leave council alone, I would leave him alone. I get the sense that the teachers are overburdened with paperwork, and I think he is too vocal on controversial issues. I'm also concerned that the schools are not doing enough for the average students and those with learning problems. We need to do a better job of testing and detecting learning disabilities and do a better job in vocational education. I feel there is not enough emphasis on trying to educate all children. Not all children are gifted or college-bound."\ BOWERS:
I'd say Frank Tota came into this city with a mandate, as far as I have been told, to get the schools turned around and in many ways he's done very good things. I think his initial style of terminating people and moving people around was so absolutely disorienting to people that he was just never able to quite recover a consensus with the school teachers or the public.
Not withstanding, he's done a lot of good things for which the city ought to be very grateful. He still has that image of not having done things with people in mind. I get along with him well. And we have always been cordial with each other. We have disagreements at times, and other times I find myself to be on the same side he is. My concern is you've got to have progress and you've got to match it with the people you're working with.
\ Why do you think that Roanoke lags so far behind other cities in hiring black police officers?\ MUSSER: "I think we were amiss in not being more aggressive as we should have been in recruiting black officers. We thought city officials were being aggressive, but when you look at the numbers, we weren't. I think city officials now have the message, with the recent Police Academy class having more black officers. I think that will continue in future academy classes. I think that part of the problem might be that both black and white applicants for the Police Department don't want to wait two or three months for the background checks and other tests that are required for new officers in the long drawn-out process. But there doesn't seem to be any way to speed that up."
\ BOWERS: I don't think we've done our job. I don't think City Council has done its jobs. We've had affirmative-action reports right along every year and yet this has continued to be neglected. I don't think anybody should be hired on the basis of race. I think they should be hired on the basis of being qualified. But I just don't think we have done a good job. This government is going to work well and our Police Department is going to have the support of our community when it more accurately reflects our community.
Keywords:
POLITICS