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

DATE: FRIDAY, June 2, 1995                   TAG: 9506020083
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

2 NAMED TO SCHOOL BOARD SEATS

Council surprised onlookers with its verdict, after almost an hour of closed deliberations in the jury room, by replacing one of the School Board incumbents with a newcomer.

Council voted unanimously to reappoint John "Chip" Craig to another School Board term, but named newcomer F. Spencer Hall to replace incumbent Carter Effler.

"I'm anxious to get started," Hall said Thursday from his office at Virginia Tech, where he is assistant vice president for facilities.

Responding to council members' questions, Hall's answers had a pleasant ring to a City Council that recently and reluctantly voted to raise taxes.

"I'm pretty much of a fiscal conservative," he said.

Hall, a Christiansburg native, praised the city's schools and told council he hoped to apply his expertise in public sector financing, facilities management, building construction and engineering to problems and issues facing the School Board. Construction work on two elementary school art and music classroom additions is set to begin this spring.

He also suggested the schools need to move forward with classroom technology or risk falling behind.

Hall, a Navy retiree who has lived in Radford for 10 years, characterized himself as a consensus builder.

While he's never held office in Radford, Hall is no stranger to public service elsewhere in the New River Valley. He's on the board of directors of both the Blacksburg, Christiansburg, VPI Water Authority and the new Montgomery Regional Solid Waste Authority. He's also a director of the Blue Ridge Power Agency and president of the Virginia Higher Education Facilities Managers Association.

For his part, Craig - a lawyer who has been active in legislative affairs through the Virginia School Boards Association - called his six years on the board "the most rewarding thing I've probably every done."

Craig described himself as "incredibly optimistic" over the future of the city's schools, of which he is a product, and said he wouldn't be afraid to consider administrative consolidations and cost reductions if they would not affect educational quality.

"We really are fairly lean and mean now," he said of the system's front office staff.

But Craig insisted the city's schools need to expand now to accommodate an enrollment wave surging through the lower grades. If the schools had an extra $1 million to spend, "I believe every penny of it would go into bricks and mortar," he said.

Craig also said the schools need to continue classroom technology initiatives to "get students ready for the 21st century."

In the past, Craig, who opposes elected school boards, has said he would not seek election. But Wednesday he made an exception, saying he would probably run, given the issues confronting the board.

Hall also said he would probably run for a seat on the board, but predicted, based on his experience in other communities, that elected school boards might end up attracting only candidates from the academic community who would run on their academic credentials.

The first School Board elections will be next year, when two members will be elected to four-year terms.

The other candidates for the two seats were businessman and former City Council member Ken Edwards and businessman Christopher Harrison.