ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 6, 1996 TAG: 9601080004
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
THE ROANOKE SCHOOL BOARD ``will proceed'' under the conditions of the former superintendent's seven-year early-retirement contract, which requires him to do 160 hours of consulting work per year for Roanoke schools.
Frank Tota will get a new assignment soon, even though he has not been paid for last year's consulting work for the Roanoke School Board.
Chairman Nelson Harris said Friday that the board will ask the former superintendent to begin work on a new task and won't wait until the dispute over his 1995 report has been settled.
"There is a contract, and we will proceed," Harris said. "I will get with board members in the next two or three weeks and get their thoughts on what we want him to do in the next year."
Tota's seven-year early-retirement contract required him to work initially on funding and other issues related to Roanoke's magnet schools. He helped win almost $17 million in federal magnet school grants during his 12 years as superintendent.
Subsequent assignments will be determined by mutual agreement between the board and Tota.
During the first two years, Tota compiled reports on the magnet schools, including possible sources of funding for the innovative educational programs in a time of reduced federal aid.
But the board has refused to pay Tota's full $35,000 annual consulting fee for the 1995 report because members said he had not done enough research. Tota also has been asked to provide documentation of the time he spent on the report.
The board has offered to pay him one-third of his fee for his work on the report. Tota, now school superintendent in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., has said he might go to court to collect the rest. He could not be reached for comment Friday on whether he will take legal action or try to revise his report so it will satisfy the board.
He was to have completed the 1995 report by Dec. 31, the second year of the contract.
Although Tota did not provide what board members believed was an acceptable report by year's end, Harris said the board might consider extending the deadline.
If Tota had made a good-faith effort to provide additional information for his report, "I think the board would try to be reasonable," Harris said. "I would take it to the board, and I think it would depend on what was offered."
Tota first submitted his report in handwritten form, but it was returned and he was asked to type it.
"We are not trying to pick a fight with him," said Marilyn Curtis, vice chairwoman. "We want him to live up to the contract we have inherited."
Under the contract, Tota is required to do consulting work for 160 hours a year - that's 20 days - to receive the $35,000 fee, which is based on 35 percent of his salary when he retired in 1993.
The agreement requires him to work at least 12 days a year in Roanoke. Eight days can be spent outside Roanoke, but they cannot be in his New York office.
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