Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 30, 1993 TAG: 9306300310
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
At its Tuesday night meeting, the board voted to give Tota one last assignment and continued to discuss privately the terms of his early retirement package, which requires him to return to Roanoke for 20 days each year until the turn of the century as a consultant.
The board also voted to approve the $95,000-a-year contract of Superintendent-elect E. Wayne Harris, who takes office Thursday.
On a motion by member Wendy O'Neil, the board voted 5-2 to direct Tota or his designee to conduct an investigation into criminal allegations against Hurt Park Elementary School Principal William Shepherd. Shepherd has been accused of failing to report to the child welfare agency the suspicions of four teachers that an 11-year-old student had been physically abused April 27.
Failure to report suspected child abuse is a misdemeanor punishable by a $500 fine under Virginia law.
O'Neil complained that more than two weeks passed before the administration told her of Shepherd's case and that 64 days have gone by since the alleged abuse with still no report from Tota or his administration.
"We have received reports on storm damage to property and other things - but no report on this situation which involved a person - one of our children," she said, reading from a prepared statement. "Things we can replace - children we can't."
Board members Marilyn Curtis and Jay Turner voted against the motion, which also called for a private report to the board at its July 7 meeting or another time of its choosing.
"I feel that the administration has looked into it and cooperated with us," Turner said, in explanation of his dissenting vote.
"I think it's an administrative duty and they will do what they're supposed to do," added Curtis, who has publicly voiced her support for Shepherd.
Tota, who starts work as superintendent of the Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. school system Thursday, could not be reached for comment Tuesday night. He had said earlier that Tuesday would be his last day of work.
Under the early retirement deal Tota struck four years ago with the board, however, he will likely be coming back.
As it has on several occasions, the board stepped behind closed doors to discuss the legal implications of that deal, which requires Tota to work 20 days each year for seven years in exchange for a $35,000 annual consultant's fee.
Board members refused to comment on Tuesday night's hour-long back-room discussion. At prior meetings, they have said Tota would be asked to help the city with its magnet-school programs and that he would have to return to Roanoke to do that work.
Tota announced earlier Tuesday the most recent in a string of magnet school grants he has helped bring to the city during his tenure.
Board members likewise refused to discuss the results of an earlier, 90-minute closed-door session in which they evaluated their own performance this year.
"It was a good session, got to get some feelings out, see we're doing a good job," Chairman Finn Pincus said at the start of the public meeting. He refused to elaborate.
None of the other board members would discuss the evaluation, citing their legal right not to discuss personnel matters in public.
by CNB