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

DATE: THURSDAY, April 22, 1993                   TAG: 9304220025
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SCHOOL BOARD HEAD READY TO TIGHTEN REINS

It's a necessary part of the job he's held for three years as a Roanoke School Board member, he said. Even more so since he became chairman in 1991.

It's also how Pincus keeps up with what's happening in the schools. And that may have more serious implications in the coming year when, he says, it will be necessary to take "a critical view" of programs that may be bloating the School Board's budget.

"Ideally, all the programs are working great," said Pincus, former director of ECPI Computer Institute and now a Roanoke College track coach.

"But if they're not, can we adjust them? Can we change them? Or do we need to eliminate them?"

Looking for ways to tighten the school system's fiscal reins will become the board's biggest challenge, said Pincus, now that it has leapt the hurdle of replacing retiring Superintendent Frank Tota.

As his greatest accomplishment on the board, Pincus points to his role in the search that turned up E. Wayne Harris as Tota's successor.

"We did a darn good job," he said. "We found the right person and our relationship with that person is good. He's very, very capable."

Pincus, a 37-year-old single man with no children, said he wants to remain on the board to continue a commitment to public service. He shrugs off rumors that he has political aspirations.

"They don't know me," he says of those who would make his motivations political. "I don't have any interest in looking into sewers and lights, snow removal or trash collection.

"It's not my thing."

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