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

DATE: TUESDAY, April 26, 1994                   TAG: 9404260145
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION IN FOR RESTRUCTURING?

Harris plans to revamp the program for troubled youth so it will be operated more like a school, with its own administrative structure.

Some of the alternative education staff may change as a result. Teachers and other staff members have been told that their jobs could end in June, depending on changes in the program.

Harris will hire a principal to oversee the program; the current organization includes an administrator and director.

William Hackley, who retired as assistant superintendent last year, has been overseeing alternative education in the past year. But he will leave in June and work in the private sector.

George Franklin headed the program for several years, but he said Monday that he won't seek the principal's job because he doesn't have a master's degree. Although he has completed part of the work for a master's degree, he has no plans to finish it, he said.

"I don't want to be a principal. I like working with the youngsters, keeping in contact with them," Franklin said.

Ann Harman, director of pupil personnel services for city schools, said the hiring of a principal is part of the effort to make the alternative education program into a first-class operation..

"I want it to have the same credibility as other schools. I want it to be a quality program," Harman said.

She would not discuss details of the restructuring because she said the principal will help decide the new structure.

"Until the principal is hired, the changes won't be final," she said. A steering committee is working with Harman and other school officials on the restructuring plan.

Franklin said he doesn't know the details, or whether it will mean significant changes in the alternative education program.

The program, which is housed at the Addison Aerospace Magnet Middle School, has a staff of 29 people, including 14 teachers. It has about 150 students, who are there because they have been involved in classroom disruptions, criminal activity, fights, severe truancy or other problems.

Under the restructuring, all teachers in alternative education will be required to have a current teacher certificate.

Franklin said all of the teachers have college degrees, but not all have up-to-date teaching certificates. The school system will provide funds to help pay tuition for the teachers to acquire certificates in the next two years.

He said this could benefit the alternative education teachers because they would be paid on the same salary scale as other teachers.

But Franklin said he is concerned that the alternative education staff members have no assurance they will have jobs after June.

"We don't know what our status will be. Our students know that we might not be here," Franklin said.

But Faye Pleasants, assistant superintendent for personnel and staff development, said it is not unusual to give such notices to the staff in programs that are financed with grants or other funds on a year-to-year basis.

The alternative education staff also may apply for other vacant jobs in the school system's regular educational programs.