THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 18, 1994 TAG: 9412170110
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Vanee Vines
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
HANDBOOK APPROVED: The board voted unanimously Thursday to adopt the revised ``Students' Rights and Responsibilities'' handbook.
One of the biggest changes allows the board to consider first-time drug offenses as grounds for expelling middle and high school students.
COMMITTEE MEMBER NAMED: The School Board appointed Sue H. Butler, a Cypress Cove resident, to its 13-member oversight committee.
Butler replaces Sandra A. Boone, who resigned from the group in November. Butler is white.
The committee of eight blacks and five whites will monitor ``community'' elementary schools in an attempt to ensure that no school is shortchanged.
This is the last school year in which elementary school students will be bused solely for desegregation purposes.
SPONG PRINCIPAL NAMED: The board named Stephanie B. Johnson as interim principal of the Tidewater Regional Alternative School at the Emily Spong Center.
Johnson will be Spong's principal when it opens as an elementary school next fall.
She's now an assistant principal at Hodges Manor and Port Norfolk elementary schools.
Daun S. Hester, the alternative school's former principal, left Portsmouth for a job in the Norfolk district.
OTHER DEVELOPMENTS: The administration gave the Richard Milburn outfit two months to respond to complaints from a review committee and several board members about the private company's alternative-education program, Superintendent Richard Trumble said Thursday.
Milburn was hired in September to run the program at Nobel Street Baptist Church and Calvary Evangelical Baptist Church on Gust Lane.
Administrators and board members have questioned the way Milburn has handled disciplinary, administrative and instructional duties.
Complaints from the district's Alternative Program Screening Committee include:
Inadequate supply of books and materials.
``General, inadequate supervision of students.''
``Academic instruction was not appropriate for the majority of the students observed.''
Trumble said the company should have a chance to iron out things.
``They have responded to concerns over time,'' Trumble said in an interview, referring to company representatives. ``At this point, though, it's fair to say our concerns outstrip their responses.''
Milburn's one-year, $400,000 contract expires in June, but the board could renew it for four more one-year terms.
The cost is $4,000 more than what the district spent last school year for students in Clarke's New Directions alternative-education program. by CNB