Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 18, 1995 TAG: 9510180043
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Long
Five of the nine candidates said they did not favor consolidation of schools, preferring to renovate existing buildings and keep them in their communities. This is contrary to the recommendations of a cross-section of county citizens who made a five-month study of future building needs in 1993 and 1994.
The 40-member building needs task force last year recommended closing Pulaski and Dublin middle schools and replacing them with a consolidated middle school, closing Northwood Elementary School in the Pulaski area and adding to Critzer Elementary, also in Pulaski. It suggested a $20 million bond issue referendum to finance the facilities.
Jeff Bain, who is challenging Dr. Nathan Tuck for re-election in the Massie District, said he believed the task force came to the wrong conclusion.
Bain said the two middle schools were sound enough to be upgraded to handle new classroom technologies, and that keeping elementary schools in their communities outweighed the benefits of new consolidated buildings.
Bain also said county taxpayers could not afford the 15-cent per $100 valuation tax increase that would be necessary to repay the bond issue.
Tuck said that, as of Monday, he supported the task force recommendations. He disagreed that the middle schools could be upgraded to handle the wiring and other needs of computers and other new technologies.
Beth Nelson, challenging Carolyn Brown in the Cloyd District for re-election, said she did not believe county voters would flinch from a 15-cent tax increase if they believed it was necessary for educational needs. "If they thought it was best for the children, I think that is the way they would go," she said.
Nelson said she favored keeping small community schools, but that upgrading their wiring, providing air-conditioning and meeting the other needs might still require bond issue funding.
Robinson District representative Sybil Atkinson and her challenger, Rhea Saltz, both said they opposed school consolidation. "You're going to have to convince me," Saltz said. Atkinson said the board has had to close small schools with dwindling enrollments and may have to do so again, but she does not favor consolidation.
Draper District member Lewis Pratt, unopposed for re-election, said he was not a proponent of consolidation. He said the board has tried to address building needs systematically, as funding levels permit.
Barbara Chrisley, the Ingles District challenger, favored smaller schools where possible.
Ingles representative Ron Chaffin said, "There are times when we have to make tough decisions," often driven by budget constraints.
More than 60 questions had been submitted by parents and teachers in advance of the meeting, sponsored by the Oriole Parent Team in cooperation with county parent-teacher organizations.
Thirty of the questions were asked in turn of the nine candidates as moderator Stephen Parson, associate professor of educational leadership at Virginia Tech, pulled them out of a container at random.
The second most popular topic involved accessibility to the public of School Board members and school officials. Concerns over the age of several textbooks came next, followed by concerns over student performances on the Passport Literacy Tests.
Saltz said some board members are not accessible to the public. "I'm the only Saltz in the phone book. You can get me anywhere. I'll meet you at the brickyard at midnight if you want me to," he said.
"I even have my pager listed," Bain said.
Current board members who got those questions said they thought they were readily accessible, at board meetings and elsewhere. Brown noted parent and teacher involvement with the budget process. Tuck said he has been disappointed by the small numbers of citizens who come to board sessions.
Bain said an advance sign-up sheet for the public to speak is a barrier to communication. He also said board members should be represented at gatherings such as athletic events and parent-teacher meetings. "The teachers need to be one of the driving forces in this system, not driven by it," he said.
Tuck said he had not meant to convey at a previous forum that board meetings, while they could be grueling, were dull. "Service on the School Board will never be boring, as there are always a multitude of challenges waiting."
The most heat came in the Robinson District race, where Atkinson noted that Saltz had resigned in mid-1993 with a year to go on his term when he was on the board previously, citing "frustration over decisions and actions by the board and administration. My question would be why does he want back on?"
"My resigning may have been a mistake. If so, I now have a chance to correct that mistake," Saltz said. He said the at-large seat which he held was going to be terminated and he did not want to be a lame-duck representative.
Following his resignation, the Board of Supervisors did vote to do away with that sixth School Board seat rather than appoint someone to it. The supervisors have no at-large member.
Saltz was critical of Atkinson's response to a question in a previous forum about conflict-of-interest potential when a board member had a spouse working for the system, as Saltz did. Saltz read from the state code showing that such situations were not in themselves violations.
Atkinson later said she understood the question to have been whether a conflict existed when a member voted on budgets affecting salaries of spouses. Her reply was that the question was under study.
Keywords:
POLITICS
by CNB