ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 2, 1996 TAG: 9612020013
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
SOME EDUCATORS believe they're being forced into vulnerable positions when schools - and their staffs - are renovated.
When Roanoke's middle schools reopen after renovation, some teachers do not return to their posts.
Some choose not to come back.
Others don't have a choice: They are offered jobs at another school if they want to remain with the city.
All teachers must reapply if they want to return to the renovated schools. But there's no assurance they will get their jobs back.
Some teachers are unhappy about the requirement.
"It's upsetting to teachers at schools that are being renovated," said Esther Cirasunda, president of the Roanoke Education Association. "Some think that it's unfair."
Teachers are assigned to other schools during the year when a school is closed for renovation.
Superintendent Wayne Harris defends what he describes as an administrative requirement for teachers to reapply for their old jobs. He said it's not a School Board policy; it's a personnel decision that he made.
He said the principals of the renovated schools select the staff and decide whether teachers will return when the schools reopen.
"I feel the principal should have the maximum latitude in choosing the staff," Harris said. "We want teachers who embrace the philosophy of the school and the vision of the principal."
Any teacher, including those at the school before it closed for renovation, can apply for a job, he said. "No one is excluded from being considered if they are interested."
School Board Chairwoman Marsha Ellison said she supports the procedure that Harris is using.
"We should allow the [principal] to make the decision. We want teachers at a school who want to be there," Ellison said.
"We've found that when we close a school for renovation and the teachers are assigned to other schools, not all want to go back to the schools where they were teaching."
By opening up teaching posts to all applicants, the principal can choose a staff that supports the school's educational philosophy, Ellison said.
The school system began using this procedure when it converted some schools into magnet programs several years ago before it began renovating middle schools, Harris said.
"Typically when a school becomes a magnet school or is renovated, there is new thematic approach with new technology," he said. The principal should have the opportunity to select a staff that supports the new focus, he said.
Harris said some teachers don't want to return to schools after the renovations. "Our experience is that many don't apply to go back because they are happy with their new assignment."
Harris has also permitted some new elementary principals to select their staffs, even when schools have not been closed for renovation or converted to a magnet school.
"This has been done on a case-by-case basis because I see it as an opportunity for professional growth and staff revitalization," he said.
But Cirasunda said a recent survey of teachers showed dissatisfaction with the practice.
"Some people are getting close to retirement and they don't want to have to go to another school," she said. "There has been unrest, not only at Breckinridge [closed for renovation this year], but at other schools which have been renovated."
Cirasunda said teachers should be allowed to go back to their old jobs if they wish.
Like the teachers, the principals of the middle schools are not guaranteed that they will return to their old posts.
Stonewall Jackson Principal Charles Kennedy and Helen Townsend, principal at Breckinridge - the first two middle schools to be reconstructed - did not go back to their posts.
Kennedy became director of Roanoke's truancy prevention project and Townsend was named principal at Jackson. Harris said he reassigned Townsend to Jackson because of "her experience and success" at Breckinridge.
He will begin interviewing applicants soon for the Breckinridge post and plans to select a principal by early next year to replace Townsend, who will remain at Jackson.
Harris said he hasn't made a decision on whether Kay Duffy will remain principal of Woodrow Wilson, the next middle school to be renovated during the next school year.
He could keep Duffy in the post; reassign someone within the school system; or fill the post after interviewing applicants.
"I make the decision on the principals one at a time," he said, without necessarily using the same procedure for every school.
Harris also made several changes in principals at elementary schools after they were renovated.
Ellison said the superintendent should be free to choose the principals and decide whether to make personnel changes.
"We have to leave that up to the superintendent and the management of the school system," she said.
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