Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 24, 1990                   TAG: 9005240434
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: MARGARET CAMLIN NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BURNS LEAVING IN JUNE

McCarty said the School Board's concerns about the timing of his departure have been resolved.

Some teachers were upset because they had the impression Burns was leaving the county immediately, said Diane Dixon, president of the 278-member county Education Association.

The association, representing about 60 percent of the county's teachers, met Monday to discuss Burns' acceptance of a job in Georgia.

"Everybody expressed disappointment that he was leaving," Dixon said. "But we understood why he was leaving and we wish him good luck. We wish him well."

Dixon said Burns allowed the Education Association to have an influence over decisions that would affect teachers.

"There's a little bit of uneasiness" because no one knows who will replace Burns, Dixon said. "Not that we don't have faith in the School Board, because we do - more than ever before."

The teachers want to have an influence over the questions the board will pose when interviewing candidates for the superintendent post, she said.

Not every teacher is sad to see Burns leave. "This is the longest school year I've ever had," said a vocational education teacher who did not want to be identified. "The morale was the lowest I've ever seen it."

Twelve teachers were recently laid off, including seven vocational education teachers who will probably not be rehired, Burns said last month. This includes Pulaski County High School's sole electronics teacher.

Pulaski is a blue-collar county that should continue providing strong vocational training, the teacher said.

School officials have said the position cuts were based on projected enrollments next year in particular classes. Tight finances and steadily declining enrollment made it necessary to trim staff, they said.

"Most of those who got riffed felt it was done in a callous, light-hearted way," the teacher said. Teachers were notified that they were losing their jobs at about the same time a team representing the state Department of Education came to review the school system, and teachers were told to look cheery, the teacher said.

Furthermore, school officials honored the 14-member review team with a dinner banquet of prime rib while teachers were reeling from the shock, the teacher said. "It seemed kind of frivolous."

"We don't understand the cuts when money is being spent on other things," such as the probable purchase of math and English computer labs for the high school, the teacher said.

Math and English teachers have repeatly expressed excitement over the computer-assisted instruction piloted this year in the high school's math department and planned next year for the English department.