DATE: Sunday, August 3, 1997                TAG: 9708030082

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DENISE WATSON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:  138 lines

PUBLIC SEES SCHOOL BOARD TENSIONS WITH VOTE ON LEADER NORFOLK PANEL WANTS TO MOVE FORWARD; COMMUNITY IS PUZZLED.

After School Board member Alveta Green, like member Anna Dodson before her, refused the nomination for the chairman's seat, people at the board's last meeting thought something was wrong.

Suspicions were confirmed moments later when votes for the third nominee, Anita Poston, were taken. Soon-to-be-former chairman Ulysses Turner would ``abstain,'' and Dodson and Green would follow.

The three would abstain in the vote for vice chairman, Conrad Greif, as well. Poston and Grief won with four votes of support, but the three abstentions left many in the community dumbfounded and concerned about the division on selecting board leadership.

Some board members and board watchers say that months of racial insensitivity, miscommunication and an internal power struggle have created tensions that became publicly evident at the School Board's last meeting.

Communication between board members has become so difficult, some board members said, that a facilitator attended a closed-door meeting at the board's retreat last weekend to help the members talk and discuss their frustrations.

``It really serves to have someone sit and listen to the comments for those who feel they were grieved,'' Greif said. ``I think that was resolved. It does committees and boards good to take those opportunities to raise and talk about each of the issues.''

Turner said: ``I felt better after the retreat. . . . I think this is a moment in time. I think we can all work through the differences and do what is best for the children.''

Norfolk State University professor Carol Pretlow, who teaches courses on race and its effect on society and law, warns that people shouldn't dismiss perceptions; overlooking them creates problems.

``To ignore and to say someone's perception isn't valid is a form of invalidating that person,'' Pretlow said. ``To say you don't understand why they feel that way is one thing, but to say that their perceptions are invalid is an invalidation of those people and class of people.''

Board members have said they want to put the recent controversy behind them and get on with running the district, but many in the community said they feel like they've been left in the dark.

``People on committees and boards have their disagreements and argue. I understand that,'' said Park Place resident Paula Miller. ``With the vote, it just seemed that this came up all of a sudden. It just left you wondering, `What has been going on?' ''

Black School Board members Green and Dodson said they declined the chairman's seat, even sacrificing the chance to diversify the leadership ranks, in support of Turner.

Turner says this recent board vote was a culmination of frustrations and tensions, some carrying racial undertones. There's a perception by some close to the board that ideas coming from black board members sometimes receive a lukewarm reception, or that black board members have to lobby harder for issues that affect black children. African-American board members Green and Dodson didn't want to comment.

The School Board rift is city officials' latest concern about relations between blacks and whites.

African-American City Council members said last week that blacks are shut out of leadership positions on the board and within the school administration. They also said that while they think the board's new leaders are qualified, they are dismayed by the lack of minority representation. Black council members were frustrated last month in their attempt to appoint a black majority to the School Board. They point out that African Americans do not hold a majority on any of the city's most important appointed boards, contending that it reflects a lack of trust among white leadership in the ability of the black community.

Also last month, the Rev. Anthony C. Paige, a black Planning Commission member, resigned unexpectedly at a meeting after charging that the city operates a dual system that treats blacks unfairly.

The School Board has the same racial makeup as the council, with four whites and three blacks.

School Board members sometimes are split on issues along racial lines.

In May, the board voted to require a 2.0 grade-point average for students participating in Virginia High School League activities, including sports, cheerleading, debate and one-act plays. Dodson and Turner pushed to have the plan extended over a 2-year-period instead of the proposed 18-month period. They said the plan disproportionately affected African-American students and others who need more time to adjust to the plan.

Green voted against the plan altogether, saying it unfairly penalized students who were gifted in athletics but poor in academics.

Some of the white board members said they haven't noticed any racial tensions or occasions where votes fell along racial lines.

``This is the first occasion I've sensed anything,'' said member James Herndon, who has served on the board for two years, referring to the recent vote. ``For the most part, I think our board is pretty unanimous in our feeling of the performance of the school system.''

Some board members and board followers attribute tensions to simple miscommunication and good, old-fashioned competition between colleagues with an eye on the leadership seat.

Board members have talked for the past year of the need to share the leadership of the board; Turner, who had been chairman for three years, said he was aware that others wanted the seat, and he wasn't expecting to get the support needed to continue.

``Whenever there's a leadership position, people aspire to that position,'' Turner said. ``That's the American way.''

Last month, Greif drafted a proposal that would, among several things, limit the chairman to serving two-year terms. Currently, Norfolk's chairman can continue to serve as long as he or she is re-elected to the spot.

Greif presented the proposal at a board meeting for input. Turner, and others close to the board, were offended that more board discussion didn't take place before the proposed policy was presented. In addition, Turner felt that the four white board members were using the document to get him out of the chair.

Turner, in letters to City Council members, called the action ``divisive.''

He wrote: ``I feel that these four members are being very divisive and have demonstrated poor boardmanship. . . . I am more concerned about the image of the school system and the image of the city.''

Greif said he contacted all the board members to get ideas for the proposal before putting it in writing. He didn't intend to upset board members.

``I'm only one board member,'' Grief said. ``I wasn't expecting the board to take action on it. It's up to the board.''

But before Grief's proposal was even introduced, many in the district had said that Turner had served well, but had served long enough. Some frustrations on the board might have surfaced as sentiments from Turner detractors - on and off the board - clashed.

Turner has been chastised by the Education Association of Norfolk for overstepping his boundaries and becoming too involved in personnel issues involving some teachers. Some have expressed concerns that Turner, who was one of two board liaisons with the City Council to discuss the district's building needs, might have made agreements without discussing them with the board.

Marian Flickinger, president of Norfolk Federation of Teachers, said she noticed tensions months ago during a board meeting when Turner tried to get board support to include funding for Granby's gym in the school system's operating budget.

Turner couldn't get the votes.

``It appeared at that point that leadership had been weak,'' Flickinger said. ``If leadership had been strong, they wouldn't have been sitting there like that. It appeared something was wrong.''

But Miller, whose grandchildren attend Norfolk schools, said she's confident that members can work around the recent hurdle and continue their ``good work for the district's children.''

She just hopes that they will have open discussions, and disagreements, so that the community isn't shut out of necessary debate. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Anita Poston was chosen chairman while three members abstained,

raising questions with citizens about divisiveness on the board.

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