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

DATE: SATURDAY, May 20, 1995                   TAG: 9505230022
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SECOND CATAWBA CANDIDATE ENTERS SCHOOL BOARD RACE

"Well, what are the qualifications?" he'll ask.

Reed's point is that you don't have to have spent your life in education to serve your community on the school board.

"I have the interest. I have the time. And I know what it's like to be on the inside of a classroom," he said.

Reed, 65, recently retired as owner of Curry Copy Center in downtown Roanoke.

But he started his professional life as a junior high and high school science teacher in Indiana. And while that was 30 years ago, Reed says he never lost interest in public education.

His second profession, selling farm equipment, kept him moving every two years, and his copy business kept him from being very active in education for a long time, he said. But since he retired in March, he's got the time to serve.

Reed, who announced his candidacy Friday, is the second candidate for the seat being vacated Jan. 1 by Frank Thomas, the board's chairman for 10 years and a member for 12.

Marion Roark, an accountant and volunteer at Penn Forest Elementary School, said Tuesday she will be a candidate.

Reed said he believes in using common sense in operating schools.

He thinks the control of education needs to be returned to educators.

"Discipline in the classroom needs to be given back to the teachers," he said. "Most of what they can do to control a classroom has been taken away. ... They can't hug a child and they can't paddle him."

Reed also said administrators should be doing more teaching, so they know what really goes on in a classroom.

For the same reason, he favors smaller schools, where teachers and administrators can have more hands-on control. He said that, while he doesn't have all the facts, he generally thinks an additional high school would be the best remedy for the Cave Spring High School crowding problem.

Reed said people in his district aren't satisfied with the way the county schools are being run, and he wants to change their perceptions.

"People are just mad as heck at the schools," he said. "But I think their concerns are many times unfounded. We have a good system in the county."

chart - John Reed