DATE: Saturday, October 18, 1997            TAG: 9710180292

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ALETA PAYNE, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   34 lines

FINANCE CHIEF FOR BEACH SCHOOLS IS A FINALIST FOR JOB IN GEORGIA

Donald Peccia, the school district associate superintendent who played a key role in the division's financial turnaround, is one of two finalists for the superintendent's post in Rockdale County, Ga.

Officials from Rockdale, a suburb of Atlanta, visited the Beach school district this week, and Peccia is scheduled to journey to Rockdale next week.

Peccia was unavailable for comment Friday.

Susan Paul Smith, a spokesperson for the Rockdale schools, said a search firm helped district leaders there find candidates, several of whom were then interviewed. The field was then narrowed to two.

``He was one of the two,'' she said.

Peccia started in the division about 25 years ago as a teacher. He currently serves as the associate superintendent for budget and finance.

Along with then interim superintendent James L. Pughsley, Peccia is credited with crafting and enforcing a stringent spending plan that turned around the district's finances in 1995-96. And he shaped the 1996-97 budget that is ending the fiscal year with a surplus of more than $16 million. He is recognized in the school division for his in-depth understanding of the budget, down to knowing the amounts in individual line items from memory.

His loss would be a blow to the division. Two assistant superintendents have left in recent months; one retired, and the other accepted the superintendency in Richmond.

Rockdale County is about 25 miles outside Atlanta. The school division in the fairly affluent community enrolls about 13,000 students.

Rockdale officials are expected to announce their selection within a few weeks.

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