THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 3, 1996 TAG: 9603030158
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A11 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALETA PAYNE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
In an emotional moment of an emotional week, board members D. Linn Felt and Ulysses Van Spiva announced their resignations before a room packed largely with school employees.
As each of them finished explaining his decision to leave, the audience and fellow board members surged to their feet - all applauding, some weeping. From the back of the room came a shout. ``Run for City Council!''
To some employees who have seen the council trim school budgets each year - sometimes citing raises given district workers as problematic - the villains in the district's ongoing financial crisis were not seated before them, but down at City Hall.
In a perfect world, decisions are made on the merits of the case. No personalities, no emotion, no politics.
But little has been perfect for the Virginia Beach School District this year. Two major hurdles stand to impede the public support needed to ensure the long-term financial health of the system. The district must overcome contentious relations with the city, and it must win back the community's confidence.
As the system struggles for stability in the wake of a grand jury report which has prompted several resignations, students' needs still must be met. .
Even before the discovery of the budget shortfall for last year and the problems with this year's budget, some board and council members were trading public barbs. Now the council points to decisions, such as the probationary reinstatement of budget development director Mordecai L. Smith, as a sign of defiance and poor judgment.
Board members feel that the school district has been singled out for scrutiny and criticism with council members railing against school building projects, for example, but rarely challenging other departments when their projects go over budget.
Both sides appear to have taken a major step toward reconciliation with last month's approval of a resolution that could lead to consolidating some financial services as early as this summer.
The monumental changes in the membership of the board in coming weeks could speed the process or reverse it. Regardless, the community is waiting for its leadership to build toward the stability, cooperation, and responsible decision-making that will serve children far better than sniping ever could.
``I've always seen people overwhelmingly say, `. . . You've got to support the schools,'' said Michael Katsias, a commercial real estate broker and chairman of the Citizens Advisory Committee for the Gifted. ``The spirit has to be out there (to get public support for raising taxes). The spirit is not out there today. You've got to do some mending.''
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOL BOARD by CNB