ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 23, 1996 TAG: 9612230100
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
When most cities and counties in Western Virginia were changing to elected school boards in recent years, Roanoke's teachers said they saw no need for the city to make the switch.
They did not support a petition campaign to try to put the issue on the ballot two years ago. Campaign organizers failed to collect the signatures of 10 percent of registered voters that are required for a referendum.
But the attitude among city teachers toward elected boards has changed because of recent actions by the School Board, said Esther Cirasunda, president of the Roanoke Education Association.
"We felt that the people then [two years ago] on the School Board were reasonable, open-minded and willing to hear all sides of an issue, including that of the REA," she said. "Now, we are not sure.
"The path this board has begun to take has been to deny educator rights, such as the recent overturn of a grievance decision, to ignore significant issues, to shut us out, and to assume that the administration is the single source concerning the truth about issues."
A recent straw poll showed that Roanoke's teachers favor an elected School Board by more than 5-to-1, she said.
The teachers have not formally taken a stand on an elected board, but the REA's board of directors will discuss the issue next month.
"I don't mean this to be threatening," Cirasunda said. "We want a board that will listen to us and work with us. I don't want to antagonize the board, but if it takes an elected board to get this, we will get involved."
City Council appoints board members in Roanoke. Salem and Roanoke are the only jurisdictions in the region that have retained appointed boards. Salem voters rejected the change to an elected board in a 1994 referendum.
Board chairwoman Marsha Ellison denied that the board has refused to listen to teachers and has accepted all recommendations by school administrators.
"No, I don't agree that we have shut out anyone," she said, "We listen to everybody."
Ellison said she doesn't view Cirasunda's comments about an elected board as a threat or an attempt to pressure the board.
"I'm going to vote my conscience, based on what I think is best for the students," Ellison said. "If the voters want an elected School Board, that is their right."
But board member Melinda Payne said she thinks the teachers are using the issue as leverage.
"Apparently, it is a pressure ploy by the REA to get board members to do what the REA wants," Payne said.
She rejected Cirasunda's suggestion that the board always approves administrators' proposals. "I think for myself. Nobody directs me what to do."
Three board members have been appointed in the last two years: Payne, Harry Davis and Brian Wishneff.
Ellison and Vice Chairman John Saunders have been on the board for 21/2 years.
Marilyn Curtis has been a board member for eight years and Charles Day for six years.
Cirasunda said teachers are angry about the board's recent decision to overturn, for the first time, a grievance panel's finding in favor of a teacher.
Teachers also are unhappy that the board's legislative requests for the 1997 General Assembly included a plea to retain its power to overturn grievance panel decisions. Council deleted the request from the board's legislative package.
"We are not suggesting that everything, or even most things, are not working properly in schools," Cirasunda said. "We are suggesting that sometimes there is even trouble in paradise and [board members] need to be troubleshooters at least some of the time."
She said board members shouldn't approve recommendations of school administrators without listening to all groups and seeking the truth on their own.
Teachers are upset, too, by Superintendent Wayne Harris' recommendation for an average pay raise of 4.1 percent next year. They said Harris and the board had promised to provide a 6 percent raise.
Board members said they never pledged a fixed percentage, but promised only to raise salaries to the national average by the 1998-99 school year. The 4.1 percent raise will keep the schools on schedule to reach the national average by 1998-99 because the increase in salaries in the rest of the country was smaller than anticipated this year, they said.
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