ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 11, 1996 TAG: 9604110065
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
It seemed to confuse them all, and the notion of voting on such a politicized measure made members uncomfortable, but the Botetourt County School Board voted Wednesday night to ask the state to participate in the Goals 2000 program.
Along with the Salem School Board, which made the same resolution Tuesday, the Botetourt board joined nearly every other school board in this end of the state in making the request - despite Gov. George Allen's warning that accepting the $6.8 million allotted to Virginia will ensnare everyone in a web of federal regulations.
"I have received a communication from just about every government agency there is on how to vote on Goals 2000," Superintendent C.S. McClure told the board. "There is a very strange kind of political activity occurring here."
"I'm not sure anybody can vote intelligently about it," board member Michael Beahm conceded.
Sifting through a pile of correspondence about the federal grant program, board member Webster Booze said he didn't want to see the county sell itself to the federal government.
"I just don't want a bunch of bureaucrats telling us how to run our school system," he said.
Sally Eads made the motion to pass the resolution, but prefaced it by saying she was torn between not standing in the way of other school systems that need the money and ducking the issue altogether. The motion passed on a 3-2 vote, with Booze and Barrie Bunn opposing it.
The federal program provides money to states and localities for school reform, teacher training, curriculum development and educational materials.
The General Assembly has directed the state to join Goals 2000 if 85 of the 134 school boards in Virginia request it. Allen has hinted he will veto the measure anyway.
Thirty-two school boards have voted to back Goals 2000. Only Radford and Rockbridge County have voted down the resolution.
Some Salem board members balked at the idea, said Superintendent Wayne Tripp. They were hesitant to place Salem schools in the middle of what Tripp called a heated political dispute across the state.
"But when it was all added up, the feeling was that this was in the best interest" of Salem schools, Tripp said.
"We should at least have the opportunity to apply for the funds," said School Board member Sally Southard. "Even if we do submit the resolution, it doesn't mean we would ever apply for the funds.
"Unfortunately, it's making a political statement," she said. "I do feel like this is making a mountain out of a molehill.
"All the school boards are really caught in the middle."
Staff writer S.D. Harrington contributed to this story.
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