THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 26, 1995 TAG: 9502240160
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Elizabeth Thiel
LENGTH: Long : 138 lines
Summer school change
Superintendent Sidney L. Faucette is proposing a major change for the school system's popular summer school programs.
Faucette proposes that students for nearly all of the programs be required to pay tuition beginning this summer. He did not say exactly how much tuition would be charged for each program. He is expected to bring more specifics to the board next month.
Students now are charged tuition for some summer school programs, such as high school courses students take to make up for classes they failed or could not fit in during the regular year. But the charges do not meet the school system's costs, Faucette said. Some programs, such as band and stringed instruments, are free.
Faucette said he wants to make summer school at least come close to paying for itself.
Faucette said he did not know how much all summer school programs cost the city every year. Mandatory summer school for elementary students who are required to attend to win promotion to the next grade level cost about $1.3 million last year, Faucette said.
Mandatory summer school would continue to be free, as required by state law. Poor students would be offered scholarships. Transportation costs would be built into the tuition.
``We're not cutting any kids out of the process because of socioeconomic status,'' Faucette said.
``We're spending a lot of money on it (summer school),'' he said. ``I think we need to focus our limited resources on the regular school year.''
Vice chairman vacancy
School Board members last week deadlocked for a second time on the selection of a new vice chairman.
Five members - Board Chairwoman June T. Kernutt, Joseph D. Taylor, Robert W. Hall, Susan L. Creamer and D. Linn Felt - voted for Felt.
Five others - Elsie M. Barnes, Ulysses Van Spiva, Charles W. Vincent, Ferdinand V. Tolentino and Tim Jackson - supported Jackson for the spot.
The vote was split almost evenly between board members who were appointed by City Council and those elected during the Beach's first ballot for School Board seats last May. The exceptions were Kernutt, an elected member who voted for appointed member Felt for vice chairman, and Tolentino, an appointed member who supported elected member Jackson.
When board Chairman James R. Darden resigned last month because of family medical problems, he was replaced by vice chairwoman Kernutt. The board came to no decision earlier this month when trying to elect her replacement.
If the deadlock is not broken, the board may have to wait for another member to choose a new second-in-command. Circuit judges are working now to appoint someone to fill Darden's term until a special election scheduled for May 1996.
The problem is further complicated by questions about whether Vincent's board seat is now vacant. A judge last week convicted Vincent on nine counts of state ethics violations and ordered him to step down, but Vincent's attorney plans to wage an emergency fight in the state Court of Appeals to save his client's board seat.
More money
The School Board Tuesday night approved a lengthy agreement with teachers, school nurses, interpreters, teacher assistants, school psychologists, visiting teachers and school social workers.
The agreement passed unanimously with one exception: supplemental pay for school workers who conduct after-school activities for students.
Board members said they believed the supplements, agreed upon by a team of employees, were not high enough in some cases.
Bonuses for all high school sports coaches, for example, would increase next year. But money paid to some middle school coaches would decrease. Board member Robert W. Hall said that if some people will get paid more, all should.
Board members also questioned the amounts offered to sponsors of some non-athletic activities. Newspaper sponsors, for example, would go from receiving $1,327 per year to $1,200. Board members suggested instead a range of pay, depending on how frequently the newspaper publishes.
Some improvements in bonus pay were proposed. Sponsors of academic clubs, which in years past have taken a back seat to sports, would get more money. High school debate team coaches, for example, would go from $1,549 per year to $2,100. Forensics coaches would get $1,800 instead of $1,327.
The board directed staff members to come back next month with a revised list of bonuses. That likely will mean slightly more money for some student-activity sponsors.
Making a difference
Thanks largely to the lobbying efforts of one Salem High School senior, the School Board Tuesday night agreed to postpone a new rule for calculating graduating students' class rank.
The board in December approved rules requiring that a student's class rank be issued at the end of the school year and include second semester grades. Until then, seniors had been issued temporary class ranks after first semester. Board members said that created competition among the kids and resulted in disappointment if students' second-semester grades triggered a change in the rankings.
The new rules were supposed to go into effect immediately.
But 17-year-old Mark S. Dixon, from Salem, asked the board to delay the rules' effects until July 1. This year's senior class, Dixon said, was expecting class rank information after first semester. It would not be fair to change the rules midstream, he said.
Dixon gathered petitions with 375 student signatures. Board members agreed to the change and commended him for his diligence.
``It has encouraged me that one person can make a difference,'' Dixon said.
More student activism
Salem's Mark Dixon wasn't the only student seeking to influence the School Board last week.
Four Cox High School students appeared before the board to ask that they be allowed to set up a strict new system that would give seniors a chance to leave school every day for lunch.
Seniors would be given waiver forms to be signed by their parents. Students with parents' permission would be issued identification cards, allowing them to leave school grounds during lunch only. A student committee would be in charge of the waivers and cards.
Teacher aides, teachers and students would monitor the parking lot and check that students leaving for lunch have cards.
Any student breaking the rules would immediately lose privileges.
School Board members made no comment on the proposal.
Buying a building
The School Board unanimously approved a resolution to ask City Council for $6.8 million to buy Celebration Station, a former shopping mall the school system has used since 1992 for office space and some alternative school programs.
The school system is leasing the building for $75,000 a month.
Public hearing
The School Board will conduct two public hearings in the next few weeks.
The first, about a series of proposed boundary zone changes, will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Larkspur Middle School.
The second will be at 7:30 p.m. March 9 in the School Board meeting room of the school administration building at the city's municipal center. That hearing will be on the district's proposed operating budget for next year. by CNB