Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 24, 1995 TAG: 9505240084
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MELISSA DeVAUGHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Mary Beth Dunkenberger of Elliston replaces board member Becky Raines on July 1 for a 21/2-year term in District C.
Roy Vickers Jr., who has been controversial with local parent-teacher groups, will keep his town of Blacksburg post on the School Board, serving an 18-month term until December 1997. The Blacksburg and Christiansburg town seats will be abolished in January 1998 to create a seven-member board and bring election districts in line with those of the supervisors.
"It's going to be a challenge," said Dunkenberger, 31. "I'm looking forward to working with the community. Knowing that my boys will be entering into the school system, I think I will feel more prepared knowing what they're going into."
Dunkenberger follows in the footsteps of her father-in-law, Tom Dunkenberger, who served on the Montgomery County School Board from 1966 to 1974. She and her husband, Tom Jr., have two young sons who aren't in school yet.
"I welcome [Mary] Elizabeth Dunkenberger," said Regina Smith, president of the Montgomery County Council of PTAs. "It will be nice to have a new face on the board. They really needed to bring someone in who had some financial sense and I think [Dunkenberger] is a good choice."
Smith did not feel the same about the supervisors' choice for the Blacksburg seat. In October, the county PTA called for Vickers' resignation after he voted to give Superintendent Herman Bartlett a raise and was the deciding vote in extending Bartlett's employment contract. Both moves did not sit well with parents and teachers, who said it was too soon for such action.
"I think it's unfortunate that the Board of Supervisors would turn a deaf ear to the many citizens who felt they desperately needed new representation on the board," Smith said. "However, it's an election year and the citizens will finally have a chance to have their say - both on the supervisors and School Board."
Montgomery County Education Association President B.J. Mullins agreed.
"We certainly will work with the board members who have been appointed," she said. "In the future, the public will be making the selection, and I feel that will more reflect the needs of the public."
Supervisor Nick Rush of Christiansburg said despite Vickers' problems, "I thought he was the stronger candidate, and he's made some inroads in opening communication lines with the Board of Supervisors. Now wouldn't be the time to break that off."
Vickers said he was pleased to be reappointed to the board and hopes to continue working to improve planning, budgeting, communication and technology in the schools.
"We've worked really hard at making a budget that's directly related to [Focus] 2006 and the Six-Year Plan," Vickers said Monday night. "And we need to complete the planning process and continue communication."
Vickers said he has sent letters to all PTAs, visited every PTA and encourages School Board members to visit schools on a regular basis.
Vickers, 41, and his wife, Pam, live in Hethwood. They have five children.
Jim Klagge, the Virginia Tech philosophy professor who applied for the Blacksburg seat but was not chosen, said he will seek a seat on the board in District F, which is up for election this fall. So far, current School Board member and retired Army Col. Dick Edwards is the only other candidate in that district.
by CNB