Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 7, 1995 TAG: 9504070045
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
Priest has been at the helm of an expanding and much-honored band program at the school for more than a decade, and is leaving to work in the private sector. He was out of town Thursday and could not be reached for comment.
The county School Board announced his departure Wednesday night, following an hourlong closed session to discuss personnel changes.
Superintendent Bill Asbury also said that all but about six teacher contracts will be renewed for next year.
He said a search will start immediately to find a replacement for Priest "if that's possible, because he's built just a fantastic program over there."
Priest, who grew up in Wise County, earned his bachelor's degree in music education at East Tennessee State University. He was band director at Clintwood High School in Dickenson County for three years, during which time that band program also won high honors. He was a graduate assistant at the University of South Carolina while earning his master's degree.
Priest was hired in Pulaski County at the start of the 1984-85 school year. He plays the trombone and many other band instruments, and has been a firm believer in discipline for the members of his band program. He has said he wants a band student to learn to play and also to gain musical knowledge.
Under Priest, the school's band program expanded to include marching, jazz, concert and symphonic bands. The program brought such Broadway music as "Phantom of the Opera" to the school's football field.
Recently, the Virginia Band and Orchestra Directors Association named the Cougar Band a "Virginia Honor Band" for its marching and concert performances. The plaque and certificate will be formally presented at the band's spring banquet and concert May 16.
It is the highest honor that a school band can receive in Virginia. This is the fourth time the band has won the award under Priest's leadership.
The School Board agreed Wednesday to recognize the Cougar Band for its achievement with the board's own Golden Apple award..
It also will recognize the Pulaski High School Players drama group and its director, Rhonda Welsh, for winning first place in state drama competition at Charlottesville, and the Pulaski Middle School Odyssey of the Mind team for its first place in regional competition. The OM team will compete at the state level in Norfolk on April 29.
In other business, the board briefly discussed new guidelines on religious activity in public schools from the state Board of Education. Asbury said the school system is already complying with most of the guidelines, but that he still is unsure about the board's stand on public prayer at graduation ceremonies and other gatherings.
Under the new guidelines, the state Department of Education is implying that "if it's a student-initiated prayer ... it's OK," Asbury said. The old guidelines would have advised against that, he said.
The school system has been discouraging even student-initiated public prayers because they could open the door to other things, he said.
"The concern I have is, if you have a Satan worshipper or someone else ... how do you give the freedom to one and not the other?" Asbury said. "What is appropriate to one person may not be appropriate to another. ... If a student wanted to repeat the Lord's Prayer, I think 99 percent of our community would say 'Hear ye,'" he said, but that might not apply to other sorts of prayers.
"We've asked repeatedly for the attorney general to give us specifics," he said. "I guess this is the closest thing we've gotten." He said these were guidelines and, at this stage, not law.
by CNB