THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 30, 1996 TAG: 9606290097
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 20 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Vanee Vines
LENGTH: 141 lines
Trumble's contract renewal approved
Some of the action from Thursday's School Board meeting:
The board voted 7-2 to renew Superintendent Richard Trumble's contract for another four years.
Board members Lawrence W. I'Anson Jr. and Ray A. Smith Sr. voted against the renewal. Both supported the board's unanimous decision last month to pursue a contract renewal.
On Thursday, they said they had changed their minds.
Trumble's new contract takes effect Monday.
Some terms of the new deal:
He'll earn $117,863.00 annually - a 6 percent increase over his current salary.
Annual pay raises will be at least 2 percent.
Trumble must notify the board chairperson in writing - ``by certified mail'' - of any plans to interview for another job; and he must do so before the job interview.
I'Anson said the two newly elected board members should have been in on the decision.
He also pointed out that Trumble's current contract didn't expire until next year. Trumble was first hired in 1990.
Smith said he didn't vote to renew the contract for ``personal'' reasons centered on Trumble's management skills in some areas.
He didn't elaborate when asked later. But Smith said he had shared his concerns with Trumble.
The terms of board Chairman J. Thomas Benn III and board member Leah Stith expired today.
They will be replaced by Elizabeth Daniels and David Joyner, both elected in May.
Character ed gets green light
The board unanimously voted to approve a plan to create a districtwide, ``character education'' program.
The board also approved nine character traits that will form the program's core.
The administration plans to begin offering the program during the second semester of 1997.
The nine traits are citizenship, responsibility, honesty, integrity, respect, self-esteem, loyalty, compassion and self-control.
The traits will be integrated in all lessons, administrators said.
Next month, a group of local teachers will write lesson plans for Portsmouth's program. The public can review them in August and September, administrators said.
A committee that studied the idea for most of the past year - and eventually embraced it - included parents and students.
The district also distributed 6,925 ``character traits surveys'' to parents; 678 - or 10 percent - were returned, administrators said.
Of the parents who responded, 667 - or 98 percent - supported six traits the committee recommended, administrators reported.
Three more traits that received the most votes from parents were added to the six.
The district isn't required to have public hearings on the program, Trumble said after the meeting.
And there are no plans to do so, he said. Guidance policy approved
After much discussion, the board voted 7-2 to approve its new guidance policy.
The policy is essentially the same as the previous one - but it makes more clear the district's intent to offer ``personal/social'' counseling unless parents tell the district in writing that they would not want that for their kids.
Academic and career guidance also will be automatically offered - unless a parent objects.
I'Anson and the Rev. Charles H. Bowens II voted against the new policy. I'Anson has argued that some forms of personal/social counseling should not be offered unless parents have indicated in writing that they would want it for their kids.
Virginia's Board of Education told districts to adopt a new policy by July. Vocational ed to be beefed up
The board approved the addition of several new, 1996-97 vocational courses for high school students - ranging from Computing Systems to Principles of Business & Marketing.
It also approved the district's plan to let an unspecified number of city students take auto mechanics; welding; drafting; and heating and air conditioning courses at Tidewater Community College's Chesapeake and Portsmouth campuses in 1996-97.
The two measures were among recommendations from the Vocational Planning Committee.
During this year's elections, many voters criticized officials for paying too little attention to the vo-tech program.
The board has yet to spell out how much - if any - transportation the district will provide vocational students who decide to attend TCC.
The district will cover some tuition expenses, administrators said.
Still, students will be asked to pay $50 per semester hour, with a two-hour minimum required.
They also must pass TCC's entrance exam.
The district will give students academic credit for passing the TCC courses.
In a related matter, the board signed off on a financial plan that describes how the district will spend nearly $300,000 in vocational education dollars next school year on equipment; repair work; supplies; computer labs; new vocational ed books; and expenses to bring the new high school courses on line.
The money is already earmarked for voc-ed in the 1996-97 budget, Trumble said.
The board said it would only consider other recommendations from the committee. Hunt-Mapp gets uniforms
Beginning this fall, Hunt-Mapp Middle students will be required to wear school uniforms.
The board approved Hunt-Mapp's mandatory student-uniform plan with an 8-1 vote.
I'Anson voted against the plan because he said he didn't agree with a mandatory policy - at least not in the first year of experimentation.
Hunt-Mapp is the district's first middle school to embrace the idea.
The school plans to set up a system to help families who can't afford uniforms on their own.
Parents who don't want their kids to participate will be urged to transfer them to another district school, Principal Carroll R. Bailey Jr. said.
A group of Hunt-Mapp staffers and parents studied the idea this year.
More auditors hired
The board unanimously voted to hire Eason, Lawson & Westphal, P.C. for about $20,000 to size up the district's financial checks and balances.
The accounting firm will wrap up its work this fall.
Board members say they want to prevent the kind of multimillion-dollar deficit the Beach district recently faced.
LPT class approved
Starting this fall, the district will offer a class for eighth-graders - and some seventh-graders - who need extra help to pass one or more parts of the state's Literacy Passport Test.
The three-part LPT is first given to sixth-graders.
Students must pass it to get a high school diploma.
The class, which will be offered at all middle schools, is an elective. It won't replace required courses.
This year, 52.9 percent of city sixth-graders passed all parts of the LPT on the first try - up from 50.3 percent in 1995.
KEYWORDS: PORTSMOUTH SCHOOLS by CNB