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

DATE: TUESDAY, December 20, 1994                   TAG: 9412210058
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DAN CASEY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ROANOKE COUNCIL MORE PERSUASIVE THAN IT REALIZES

Roanoke City Council on Monday asked the School Board to reconsider its support for charter schools.

Oops. Apparently, none of the seven council members realized the board had done that six days earlier.

"I didn't know that. I didn't realize that ... That's good," said the councilman who made the motion, Vice Mayor John Edwards, after a reporter told him about the School Board's vote. The School Board ``doesn't send us their minutes. We did what we did."

A story mentioning the School Board vote was published Friday in the Roanoke Times & World-News.

The School Board changed its mind after a Dec. 12 meeting with council and state legislators. House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County, trashed Gov. George Allen's charter school proposal, which calls for independently run, publicly funded schools that are free from large public school system bureaucracies.

Before that meeting, council and the board approved a package of desired legislation for the 1995 General Assembly that supported the concept of charter schools - provided local school boards control them.

Edwards wants that plank of the package deleted.

by CNB