Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 24, 1990 TAG: 9004240441
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MARGARET CAMLIN and MADELYN ROSENBERG NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Burns, one of four finalists for the job, went to Georgia 10 days ago for an interview. A team from Georgia is to visit Pulaski County this week to talk to "regular people" in the community, according to Dan Doleman, president of the Muscogee County School Board.
A team from Georgia also plans to visit Vero Beach, Fla., where Burns was superintendent for 10 years before coming to Pulaski last year.
Burns told Pulaski County School Board members Wednesday and Thursday that he was a top candidate for the Georgia post, and it took them completely by surprise, board member Ann Neighbors said Monday.
"I'm concerned," Neighbors said. "We're trying to be patient and see what happens."
Neighbors said she did not want to think yet about Burns' leaving and the search for another superintendent. The board is dealing with the news "one step at a time," she said. "We've not met; we've not even pursued the idea."
Burns said Monday that the Muscogee County school system is the "only district in America I'd talk to."
The 30,000-student district includes schools in the city of Columbus and in the county. It is within a day's drive of where his parents and his wife's parents live.
It is also closer to where his grown children live, he said. "It's hard to be this far away with two girls and a grandchild," Burns said.
Burns has a four-year contract in Pulaski. "I'm not looking to leave, he said. ". . . If [the Georgia job] offered to me, I would have some serious questions about it."
Burns said he is concerned about the appropriateness of interviewing for another job before his first year in Pulaski County is up. Before he was hired, board members asked Burns if he could commit to a four-year contract, said board member Thomas Thompson.
"He indicated to us, at the time, that he didn't have any personal reasons to keep him from staying for the duration of the contract," Thompson said.
"I think it's the personal reasons - the health of his father, and his wife's parents are getting older," county Supervisor Bruce Fariss said. "He wants to be close to his family. Most people raised in the South are very family-oriented."
Board member Paul Shelor said he was surprised and disappointed to learn that Burns was considering another job. "I really think things were generally going the way he had hoped here," Shelor said.
Burns came to the school system in July from Indian River County (Vero Beach), Fla. He was hired at an annual salary of $79,500 and is budgeted to be paid $83,492 for the 1990-91 school year.
"If I had my druthers, he certainly would not leave," said Fariss, who was bothered by the size of Burns' salary at first but has since become one of Burns' strongest supporters. "I feel that if he leaves, we will lose a lot of ground in some of the programs he has started."
The Georgia school system's nationwide search resulted in 26 applications, said Gary Ashley of the Georgia School Board Association.
Burns said he did not apply for the job. He said he told the Muscogee board's search consultant that "If the board went though the list and wanted to talk to me, I would."
The former superintendent of Muscogee County schools committed suicide in July, according to Sheryl Sparks, secretary of communications for the school system.
by CNB