ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 16, 1997 TAG: 9701160040
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: S.D. HARRINGTON
The Salem School Board voted unanimously to reappoint Superintendent Wayne Tripp Tuesday night for another four years.
Tripp will begin his ninth year as Salem's school chief in July. He was first appointed in 1989, when Salem was in its seventh year as an independent school system.
Salem broke from the Roanoke County school system in 1983.
Tripp had been director of instruction for Salem schools since 1982.
"He's exceeded our expectations," said School Board Chairman Walter Franke, who was on the board that first hired Tripp. "He is phenomenal."
Tripp is paid $91,995 a year.
Before Tripp was appointed superintendent, Salem schools had the ninth-highest drop-out rate in the state - 7.4 percent. Now it's about 2 percent.
Total enrollment has gone from about 3,400 in 1988 to about 3,900 this year, and the city has one of the best-paid teaching staffs in Virginia.
The school system has nearly finished $13 million in capital improvement projects - including the renovation of the aging G.W. Carver Elementary School, which is expected to be completed by the end of the school year.
Tripp - who earned a doctorate last year from Virginia Tech - credits the schools' staff for that success, which he said keeps him in Salem.
"I choose to be here because of the value this community puts on young people," he said.
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