THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 28, 1996 TAG: 9604260195
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
Two good proposals surfaced in a meeting Portsmouth School Supt. Richard Trumble had last week with City Council:
1. Consolidation of the now separate public information offices of the city and the schools.
2. Contractual arrangement with Tidewater Community College to add more vocational courses to the high school curriculum.
Both ideas would maximize use of people and buildings paid for by the public.
Certainly all the people paid by the city to disseminate public information should be working together. Merging the school office with the city office is a good place to begin. Although they should keep their offices in the agencies they represent, other city information officers eventually should be part of one department if the city's image is going to be consistently portrayed.
Consolidation should not focus on saving money but on getting the most for the money spent. If the merger of the city and school staffs should result in savings because one director's job would be eliminated, the money should be used to purchase ads or pay for other ways to publicize the city - a budget line item that always falls short.
Trumble's notion of contracting with TCC to offer the vocational courses rather adding labs and workshops to the public schools sure makes sense. Anytime expensive facilities can be shared by taxpayer-supported institutions, they should be.
The discussion about using TCC for vo-tech brings to mind a proposal some years ago to include space for a TCC component in the new $40 million I.C. Norcom campus. A contract for vocational classes could resurrect the idea of more joint ventures.
Maybe the public schools will be able to find space in the new edifice to house some academic classes TCC would like to share. Smart high-school students could get a jump start on college by taking some basic courses during their last year of high school.
Portsmouth and Tidewater Community College could form an unusual partnership that would benefit the students, both schools and, most of all, the taxpayers.
Even though the idea of building TCC into Norcom never materialized, it isn't too late to work out a mutually beneficial deal.
School officials seem to be in a very cooperative mood, if last week's session was any indication. Of course, it was a work session and the council had asked Trumble to come discuss the budget.
But it makes sense to consolidate public information offices and to interact with TCC, not simply to save money but to improve services. We hope the schools follow through to make both proposals work. by CNB