Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 4, 1993 TAG: 9308040252
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Although the School Board agreed that a special joint committee of county government and the school system should study the merger of the finance departments, it was not clear whether the School Board wants the committee to simply gather information or to prepare a plan for consolidation.
At least one School Board member, Annette Perkins of Blacksburg, was unsure whether the School Board should allow the committee to proceed with its work at all. Perkins pointed out that the School Board has not discused in detail a merger study developed last spring by County Administrator Betty Thomas's staff, nor a subsequent rebuttal of that study by the staff of former School Superintendent Harold Dodge.
Agreeing to go ahead with the committee's study was the same as agreeing to move ahead with the merger, Perkins said.
Bartlett disagreed. "We're not asking the board to take a position," the superintendent said. The purpose of the committee is to provide the School Board information - that both the county and school system can agree is accurate - on which the School Board can base a decision "one way or the other," he said.
Bartlett said the Board of Supervisors already had made its decision, as indicated by the $500,000 the supervisors withheld from the school system's budget this year to pay the salaries of finance employees who would work for the county under the merger. Bartlett said that he thinks the School Board needs to respond to the supervisors with a "yes" or "no."
"My desire was, first off, to get this thing off dead center," Bartlett said of his support for the committee. The committee was not going to make the decision on whether to merge, he said.
School Board Member Don Lacy of Blacksburg - although he agreed that the School Board had not discussed the issue much and that a merger was a major policy decision - broke the deadlock in the debate when he said, "I think there are a lot of reservations, but let's just go."
The Board of Supervisors asked Thomas to look at a merger last year, saying it wanted better access to information on school finances. Difficulty in obtaining information on school spending during the county's annual budget preparation was at the root of the supervisors' request.
Besides providing better accountability, the study prepared by Thomas's staff suggested that a merger could also save the county money in the long run.
The joint committee will be composed of Bartlett, School Board Chairman Roy Vickers and Finance Director Dan Morris from the school system; and Thomas, Supervisors' Chairman Ira Long and Finance Director Jeff Lunsford from the county.
Also at Tuesday night's School Board meeting, Superintendent Herman Bartlett Jr. announced the appointment of three new principals.
Alfred A. Smith, an assistant principal for 20 years at Blacksburg High School, will take over from Clinton LeGette, who is retiring; Janice F. Roback, a principal in the Charlottesville school system and former assistant principal in Montgomery County, will succeed Paula Burwell Robinson, who is leaving the area, at Christiansburg Elementary; and Robert W. Duckworth will step up from assistant principal at Gilbert Linkous Elementary to succeed Ray Van Dyke, who has moved to Blacksburg Middle School.
by CNB