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

DATE: THURSDAY, September 21, 1995                   TAG: 9509210071
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ALYSSA GABBAY ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WILKINSBURG, PA.                                  LENGTH: Medium

BOARD GIVES PRIVATE FIRM POWER TO HIRE, FIRE TEACHERS

Diane Silinski studied for four years to learn how to teach children. Now she's dealing with a particularly hard lesson: She and 15 other teachers have lost their jobs.

``It's very frustrating,'' said Silinski, who taught kindergarten at Turner Elementary School. ``I felt that my kids were just doing so exceptionally.''

Citing dismal test scores, the Wilkinsburg School Board signed a private company to run Turner and gave it, for the first time anywhere in the nation, the power to hire and fire teachers. Classes began Sept. 5 for Turner's 400 students with a new nonunion faculty and principal.

``No one ever came to us and said, `There's a big problem going on here,''' said Lisa LeDonne, another of the former Turner teachers.

The hiring of Alternative Public Schools Inc. has split this gang-plagued suburb of Pittsburgh, pitting friends and even relatives against each other and angering parents who think their children are becoming guinea pigs.

The school board in the city of about 24,000 hopes the Nashville, Tenn., company will improve students' performance and hold the line on costs. But the experiment may not last long enough to accomplish that.

A decision from Pennsylvania's Supreme Court is expected any day now on a lawsuit filed by the fired teachers who claim the board is illegally relinquishing its obligation under state law to educate children.

Alternative Public is being paid $2.2 million a year for five years and must ensure that 40 percent of the students score above the national average on the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills in the third year.

In 1993, only one-third of the fourth- through sixth-graders at Turner scored above the national average in reading and math. The 1992 high school valedictorian had a grade-point average of 2.7 out of a possible 4.0.

The company has lengthened the school year from nine months to 11 months. Teachers are developing profiles of each student detailing their strengths, weaknesses, health and family situation.

Eight of Turner's teachers were reassigned to other schools, and 16 others lost their jobs.

Neither school board officials nor Alternative Public will say what the new teachers are being paid, but the company acknowledged it's less than what the old faculty received.

John Eason, an Alternative Public co-owner, said the company wanted to ``put together the staff that's going to be with that company and be accountable to that company. The company and the contract provide a very high degree of autonomy but also a high degree of accountability.''

LeDonne and Silinski agreed that not all of the teachers at Turner gave 100 percent. But they and many others took their own time to tutor students and spent their own money to buy treats.

``You do it because you want to do it, not because you have to do it,'' said the 27-year-old Silinski.

It wasn't enough, school board member Brian Magan said.

``We don't think it's right that year after year, class after class drops out of the school and isn't prepared to deal with the world,'' he said. ``Someone has to say, `It's time to stand up and dig in here.'''

All four of the district's schools are in need of overhaul, Magan said. If privatization works for Turner, the board will consider it for the other schools.

``I feel for (the fired teachers), but at the same time, I'm glad I'm here and will be able to make a difference,'' said Corell Massengill, one of the new teachers at Turner.

The Wilkinsburg Education Association, the union representing the former teachers, said it doubts the new crew will be able to turn around Turner.

The union said the new faculty members have less experience than their predecessors. Of 18 teachers, about 44 percent have master's degrees, according to Bill DeLoache, a partner with Alternative Public. About 63 percent of the former Turner teachers had master's degrees.

Parents and others may be giving experience too much weight, Magan said.

``Certainly we've had experienced teachers in the past, and that didn't work,'' he said.

Ellen Collier isn't convinced Alternative Public is the answer. She is one of a few parents who pulled their children from Turner when it went under private management. Mrs. Collier is now teaching her 7-year-old granddaughter, Brandi, at home.

``A business is about money,'' said Ellen Collier, one of a few parents who pulled their children from Turner when it went under private management. ``Is it about education? No. It's about profit. Where's the profit for the children?''