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

DATE: TUESDAY, March 23, 1993                   TAG: 9303230386
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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TOTA'S NEW JOB

IN HIS 12 years as Roanoke school superintendent, Frank Tota shook things up in the often hidebound world of public education.

Tota retires June 30 - and on July 1, it was announced last week, he'll take over the $115,000-a-year superintendency of the Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., system.

But apparently, and unfortunately, controversy will linger.

Its source: the $35,000-per-year, 20-day-per-year consulting contract included in Tota's early retirement package negotiated four years ago with the Roanoke School Board. The issue: Is Tota actually bound to do any consulting?

If not, then the package was a mistake. It was overgenerous and, just as bad, misleading. If the money in fact was deferred pay rather than a contract for real consulting work, it should have been called deferred pay rather than a consulting contract.

On the other hand, Roanoke has a new superintendent coming aboard this summer, Wayne Harris, a top administrator in the Fairfax County system. Harris says, for understandable reasons, that he'd just as soon not have Tota looking over his shoulder.

In light of that, demands that Tota return to Roanoke on Dobbs Ferry vacation days make little sense other than as a form of vengeance. The focus now should be on the city schools' future under Harris, not their past under Tota. Ruing a four-year-old mistake is a diversion. Forget it. Move on.

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