THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 19, 1995 TAG: 9511190225
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines
As a state-funded center that trains and advises local school districts dissolves, educators are working to hold some pieces together.
School boards throughout the Albemarle have been asked in the past month to contribute to the Northeast Regional Educational Service Alliance, a new coalition of school systems that will pool resources.
The alliance will replace the Northeast Technical Assistance Center, one of five field offices that the State Department of Public Instruction will shut down June 30.
The Williamston-based center provides training, legal advice and support to 20 school districts in northeastern North Carolina. Some smaller districts that can't afford the broad range of expertise on their own say they depend heavily on the center.
But an overhaul of the state's education bureaucracy will eliminate the field offices and distribute their budgets among local districts. Most northeastern counties expect to receive from $40,000 to $60,000 apiece.
That money won't be enough to meet Camden County's need for staff development, legal services, support for exceptional children and personnel management, Superintendent Carole Smith said Friday.
So the Camden Board of Education voted recently to contribute its share of the technical assistance proceeds to the alliance.
``We feel like it's a good investment if we pool our money,'' Smith said. ``We're going to try it a year and see how it goes.''
Jeanne Meiggs, director of the Northeast Technical Assistance Center, said seven districts have joined Camden in committing to the alliance: Hyde, Tyrrell, Gates, Elizabeth City-Pasquotank, Chowan, Halifax and Dare.
Two systems, Beaufort and Pitt counties, have voted not to join. The remaining 10 are still deciding, Meiggs said. Some, including Perquimans, will vote this week.
For Perquimans County Schools Superintendent Randall Henion, the question is whether the district would do better by hiring one administrator with its new money or by paying for access to several experts in various fields.
``I think it's an exciting concept,'' Henion said, adding that Perquimans School Board members ``believe in collaboration and working together.''
But the board also had questions about who will run the alliance and just how the money would be put to use. Members put off a vote when the issue was raised at the last meeting, Henion said.
And the Currituck School Board last week tabled the question until early next year.
``What I'm really concerned about right now is what we are getting for the money that we would put into this,'' Currituck Board Chairwoman Mary Ellen Maxwell said Friday. ``I'm just wondering what we could do for ourselves for staff development, versus what the alliance would do for us.''
Architects of the Northeast Alliance say its members will decide for themselves how to spend the resources. Those who have signed on will meet Dec. 6 to discuss their plans.
The organization will focus on services like curriculum consulting, technology, site-based management training and legal help, Meiggs said. Another goal is to go after grant money for members - a service that goes beyond what the technical assistance center provided.
``It's going to be a very entrepreneurial endeavor,'' said Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Superintendent Joe Peel, president of the northeast's Superintendents Council and an alliance organizer. ``It's going to live and die by what it's able to produce.''
Meiggs and Peel are counting on at least 10 members, and maybe 12, in the alliance's inaugural year. That would yield about half a million dollars for full-time staff and consultant services.
Because the organization will be independent, it will be able to customize its services to its members' needs, officials said.
``It has nothing to do with a bureaucracy any longer, and we have to quickly disconnect ourselves from that idea,'' Meiggs said.
If the organization gets off the ground, Peel said, the group may try such innovations as recruiting members from smaller counties in southern Virginia.
``I think we'll be able to be in the driver's seat,'' Peel said. ``We'll be able to decide who we want to come in.''
Officials said they would like to firm up the organizational skeleton as soon as possible, in part because the remaining employees at the dying technical assistance center are unsure of their futures.
The center, which is housed in a 1-year-old building in Williamston, has already seen its staff drop from 26 to 16 over the past year, Meiggs said. Her own job will be eliminated June 30.
``We need to get on with hiring people and letting people know if they're going to have a job or not,'' Peel said. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
Services needed
The school districts need to draw on expertise in areas such as
staff development, legal services, support for exceptional children
and personnel management.
Districts now involved
Camden, Hyde, Tyrrell, Gates, Elizabeth City-Pasquotank, Chowan,
Halifax and Dare.
by CNB