THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 11, 1994 TAG: 9408090162
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: COVER STORY
BACK TO SCHOOL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 185 lines
A CARTOON POSTER hanging in Ulysses Turner's Church Square Shoppes office depicts President-elect Clinton playing a saxophone next to his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Its caption: ``Time for a New Tune.''
As new chairman of the Norfolk School Board, Turner will have a chance to compose a few new tunes of his own. But don't expect drastic changes in tone: While Turner may conduct the board using a different melody, he plans to sound a familiar refrain.
``I just want to improve upon what we're doing,'' Turner said after fellow members in July unanimously elected him chairman of the seven-member School Board.
With seven years of experience wrestling with policy issues facing the city's school system, Turner, 51, is the board's most senior member.
During the past year, he served as vice chairman under the leadership of Lucy R. Wilson, who presided over the board for four years.
Turner, the first African-American man to head the board, said he shares the same philosophy of consensus-building that Wilson so skillfully employed.
``I believe my job will be quite easy,'' the soft-spoken Turner said the day he was elected, graciously calling each of his fellow board members by name and pointing out their strengths: lawyers Joe Waldo, Anita Poston and Junius Fulton III, accountant Robert L. Hicks, scientist Robert F. Williams and statistician and former school administrator Anna Dodson.
``We must channel all of our energy into what is best for the children of this school system,'' Turner said.
Turner brings his own unique strengths, including a background as a vocational teacher and as a successful businessman.
His wife, Josephine, an educator for 22 years, teaches high school business classes in Virginia Beach. They have two children: Jessica, 17, a Maury High School grad, begins work on a biology major this fall at Old Dominion University; and Jared, 14, just finished Blair Middle and starts at Maury this fall.
When the City Council appointed Turner to the School Board in 1987, then-Mayor Joseph Leafe said: ``He's been an entrepreneur, and in a very responsible way. I think bringing a business perspective to the board will help it achieve its goals.''
The son of a Southampton County farmer, Turner was 10 when his parents, the late McKinley and Erlean Turner, moved to Norfolk. After graduating from Booker T. Washington High School in 1962, Turner completed a two-year vocational certification program at Norfolk State University in 1965.
On his way to a new job soon after, Turner changed his mind, went home and changed clothes and headed back to NSU to enroll. He graduated from NSU in 1969 with a bachelor's degree in industrial education.
The decision to attend the university changed his life, he said.
``Getting the degree gave me the confidence to know I could compete,'' said Turner.
Turner took his NSU degree to Ferguson High School in Newport News, where he taught industrial technology for 12 years. He also started a part-time heating and air-conditioning business and began developing rental property on the side.
In 1985, he created Atlantic Apartment Rentals and Development Co., which he now operates in a red brick shopping center he built on Church Street. He is a conservative businessman but is willing to take well-calculated risks: In the 1980s, for instance, he pioneered redevelopment efforts in Park Place and Church Street-Huntersville long before anyone else recognized the potential.
He is plugged in to the city's political establishment and is committed to the city's well-being and renewed growth downtown. ``I have a lot of faith in our city and our leadership team, and as a result I've placed all my financial investments in this city,'' Turner said.
Turner has shared the rewards of his business savvy: In 1987, his company established a scholarship fund at NSU for high school grads who want to study industrial technology. ``There's a deficit of good, skilled craftsmen out there in the field,'' he said.
Managing a school system should be approached the same way as running a business, Turner said.
``The district's No. 1 goal should be to maximize its dollars and put the savings back in the classroom to educate our youth,'' he said.
Most of his goals for the next year build on existing initiatives: to raise student achievement, increase parental and community involvement and create safer schools.
Part of the new melody line will be to establish a stronger relationship between the school system and PTAs, which Turner contends is a key ingredient in boosting student achievement. That is especially true in the system's middle and high schools, where parental participation in PTA drops off or is nonexistent.
``We need the parents even more at the middle and high school level because that's when peer and societal pressures increase,'' Turner said. ``I believe that if every school has a strong, active PTA, we can address many of the problems facing our children. Just saying parental involvement is not enough - you've got to map a strategy to get them to come and to make it user-friendly.''
Getting parents to dance to the music ties in with his other goal: increasing community use of the schools. Turner envisions turning school buildings into neighborhood ``service centers'' for families, where an unemployed parent could learn about job opportunities, for instance, or where social service agencies could provide assistance. Opening up the schools for community recreational activities is another important part of his plan.
``There's no reason why it can't happen,'' Turner said. ``It sets forth a climate for our schools to become a focal point of our community, as they once were. I'd like to see most activities of a community centered around that school building.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN
Fellow members unanimously elected Ulysses Turner chairman of the
School Board. ``I just want to improve upon what we're doing,'' he
says.
TURNER'S VIEWS
Looking at the year ahead, Turner recently discussed his new
position as School Board chairman and some of the issues facing
Norfolk's school systems. Following are his responses:
Q. What are your top priorities for the coming school year?
A. Improved School Board-PTA relationships, which equates to PTA
empowerment. The PTA will promote the School Board's agenda through
the community and in the homes of our students. The outcome will be:
lower dropout rates, increased student daily average attendance,
higher achievement goals and safe schools.
Q. What is the biggest weakness of Norfolk's school system and
how do you propose to address it?
A. We find that a large number of our students begin dropping out
at the middle-school level. I believe our middle-school curriculum
is not comprehensive enough. The range of course offerings is too
narrow; we don't have enough courses and programs to challenge the
low achiever, the average achiever as well as the high achiever. We
need a model middle-school curriculum so that we can spread those
learning experiences to all of our middle schools. We have provided
for varying achievement levels at the elementary level. The
Willoughby Model School was the catalyst. As a result, we have a
comprehensive elementary program. We also have a comprehensive and
challenging high school curriculum.
Q. What are the most significant changes you've witnessed in the
delivery of education since you graduated from Norfolk schools?
A. When I was a student in the Norfolk Public Schools, we
concentrated mainly on the three R's, with a little science and
vocational trades included. Today our curriculum is much more
comprehensive in scope. Our curriculum more closely mirrors the
needs of the community and the business world. The delivery of
education is more high-tech today. We have more than just the
teacher and the blackboard.
Q. What is the single most important thing Norfolk schools can do
to motivate all students to achieve their best?
A. The single most important thing is to encourage our teachers
and all administrative staff to treat each other with respect.
Consequently, encourage respectful treatment of all students and
parents regardless of the family background. If students are given
the attention and time they need as well as the respect they
deserve, they will perform satisfactorily for you.
Q. As an African-American who has become a successful
businessman, what advice do you offer to young black males in the
Norfolk school system, where inner-city blacks are most at risk of
academic failure?
A. As an African-American, I share my inner-city experiences with
them. I share my rise from a morning paper boy who delivered 200
newspapers before school to graduating from college to become a
businessman. I tell them to commit to their goals, to become
proficient and turn their skills into wholesome entrepreneurial
opportunities. The thought of creating jobs rather than consuming
jobs is an interesting and different perspective for them.
Q. Given recent research by a Harvard group that suggests the
city's majority-black community schools have failed to increase
achievement of black students, should Norfolk reconsider busing
students to achieve racial integration at these schools?
A. Attending a majority black community school is not the primary
reason for academic failure when both human and material resources
are available and equal to resources in the non-community schools.
Statistics show that students attending non-community or integrated
schools fare only marginally better. The positive side of integrated
schools is that they mirror society; we live and work in an
integrated world. Programs and parental support are the key
ingredients to educating all youths in Norfolk Public Schools.
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK SCHOOL BOARD PROFILE
by CNB