DATE: Saturday, March 29, 1997              TAG: 9703290286
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: KILL DEVIL HILLS                  LENGTH:   32 lines

FIRST FLIGHT EDUCATORS, 2 BOARD MEMBERS DISCUSS CONTROVERSY DETAILS OF THE MEETING REMAIN UNKNOWN; REPS FROM BOTH SIDES DECLINED COMMENT.

Nobody was talking Friday afternoon after a two-hour meeting among First Flight Middle School teacher representatives and two school board members involved in a controversy over seventh-graders' letters about the school bond referendum.

School Board Chairwoman Donna Buxton and board member Susie Walters declined to comment about what went on at the closed-door session. Several teacher representatives also refused comment.

The meeting was called to discuss the furor over alleged criticism by Buxton and Walters of seventh-grade teacher Christy Hodges, First Flight Middle School's teacher of the year.

Hodges was not at the meeting.

Teachers at the school say Buxton chastised Hodges Thursday for an assignment she gave her students. The seventh-graders wrote letters to the editor of a local newspaper concerning the $59.5 million school bond issue. Walters contacted administrators about the classroom project, teachers say. About 35 teachers and parents met in support of Hodges after school Thursday.

Buxton said Thursday that the incident was ``blown out of proportion,'' and that she was simply trying to provide Hodges with factual information on the controversial spending plan to aid the students.

Teacher representatives met with the board members to bring an end to the controversy, but no written or oral statement was given by either side after the meeting.

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