Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 2, 1993 TAG: 9302020074
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
BOARD ANTICIPATES MORE HOLIDAY-NAMES COMMENTS
Tonight's Montgomery County School Board meeting has been moved to the Christiansburg High School auditorium in anticipation of another round in the public debate over school holiday names.As of Monday morning, 24 people had signed up to speak.
But the board, unless it extends its normal period for public comment, will have time to accommodate only 10 of those people. They will get three minutes each to speak.
At the board's Jan. 5 meeting, roughly 900 people showed up at the high school to listen to 20 speakers on opposing sides of the school-naming issue.
The board, at that meeting, extended the public comment session by half an hour.
Attendance at the Jan. 5 meeting contrasted starkly with the 45 people who turned out Jan. 26 for a hearing on the $48.3 million budget the board has planned for next year.
The holiday-name controversy was triggered by a news article in December in which former board Chairman Daniel Schneck explained a change in the board's personnel policy for employees on a 12-month contract. The board changed the name for the Christmas and Easter holidays to "winter" and "spring" break.
The change brought the policy in line with the school calendar, which has used the name winter break for five years and spring break for 10. The idea behind the change was to be more sensitive to employees who might not practice the Christian faith.
The first opposition to the change surfaced at a Dec. 14 Board of Supervisors meeting, which drew 300 people. Following the Jan. 5 School Board meeting, a group of opponents to the secular names launched a petition drive to get a referendum for an elected school board on this November's ballot.
Tonight's board agenda also contains:
A presentation by the school system's strategic planning commission, which is working on the system's 2006 plan.
The second reading of a new board policy designed to protect school employees from contact with dangerous diseases, such as hepatitis and AIDS, that might be present in a student's blood.
Discussion of school policies related to student clubs and the county's grading scale.
A report on cannery operations at the Blacksburg and Auburn high schools, which says the canneries need more money from the Board of Supervisors to continue in operation.