Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 8, 1992 TAG: 9202080247
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NEAL THOMPSON EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
TOTA RANKLES COUNCIL
If City Manager Bob Herbert had given City Council the type of memo that Superintendent Frank Tota sent to the School Board last week, he'd be looking for a new job.That's how Vice Mayor Howard Musser reacted to a Jan. 31 letter Tota sent the School Board. In it, Tota told board members that questions from the media on serious issues such as guns in schools should be directed to the administration and not answered by board members.
"Had the same memo come from Bob Herbert, we would be sitting in his office the next day discussing where he was going to go from here," Musser said. "The tail does not wag the dog, and that's what this [memo] seems to indicate to me."
As Councilman James Harvey put it: "He works for the School Board, not vice versa."
And Board member Charles Day said: "The School Board is in charge. . . . They have the freedom to speak out or not speak out."
In the span of a week, the memo issue has become a very uncomfortable one for Tota and the School Board. Chairman Finn Pincus insists it has been "blown out of proportion."
But some city and school officials say it has exposed a side of the relationship between Tota and his board members that most parents and other citizens don't often see. It's a side in which Tota discourages public discussions of problems that may make the school system - and his administration - look bad.
That's how Councilman and former School Board member William White sees it.
He said he felt the same pressures from Tota, the school administration and even other School Board members when he spoke publicly about issues that concerned him. "Other people thought that was inappropriate," he said.
Including Tota, he said.
The one who now says she is taking the heat for publicly discussing what she believes is a problem - in this case guns in schools - is Board member Wendy O'Neil.
It all started in late January, when O'Neil made comments about the gun problem in a newspaper article. A few days later, Tota referred to those comments in his memo, saying the "appropriate comment" would have been to refer a reporter's questions to the administration and express confidence in the administration's ability to handle the situation.
O'Neil then sent Tota a letter expressing her concern that someone may be killed before the guns issue is tackled. Tota responded Tuesday with a letter to O'Neil in which he referred to O'Neil's "alarmist manner" and "histrionics regarding school safety."
O'Neil's response Friday was: "I hardly think they're histrionics when we've got some poor child dead today."
She was referring to a shootout Friday outside a Norfolk high school, where one teen-ager was killed and another injured. O'Neil said it proves her point: Guns are a problem for all schools, and Roanoke needs to face that problem before someone gets hurt.
And she said she doesn't like being chastised by Tota for speaking out about that.
Tota said the schools are taking steps to prevent guns from being a problem. Some of the possible solutions may be discussed as early as Tuesday's School Board meeting.
And while he has no problem with board members talking about perceived problems, Tota says there is an appropriate place to do that: at School Board meetings or in meetings with him or other school administrators.
"If someone is out to solve problems, then obviously you need to talk to the people who are going to solve the problems," he said.
Board member Tom Orr agrees. He said he feels more comfortable voicing his concerns through the administration and other School Board members first. "I think it's only fair that they know my concerns," Orr said.
Board member Sallye Coleman said they need to work together as a board, not individually.
For O'Neil to make comments in the newspaper, Tota said, is a "political tactic" signifying "political ambitions."
"It has to do with whether you're looking for publicity or solutions," he said. "The School Board is not supposed to be a political avenue. . . . Unelected people are beginning to act like politicians."
O'Neil said she has no political motives and no immediate political ambitions.
"Certainly there is no political advantage to it, although some people might question that and say, `of course there is,' " she said.
And O'Neil said she's sorry she can't speak out without bumping into Tota. "I'm not against Frank Tota. I'm for the students."
But O'Neil said she feels vulnerable because she is the only one willing to speak out on this and some other issues.
Another board member said the others supported O'Neil and said Tota's response - beginning with the memo - was an "overreaction."
That board member asked not to be named.
Musser, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor in the May election, said it's a sad day when public officials can't speak their mind.
"I think any member of the School Board has a right to express their opinions," he said. "[Tota] overstepped his bounds."
The media is as good a place as any for board members to express concerns, he said. If they waited to speak out just at School Board meetings, members would get just two chances a month.
"I hope more of them do this. If there is a perceived problem, I have no problem with them bringing this out," Musser said.
Questioning Tota on these types of issues is not a bad thing, he said. "We question Bob Herbert every time he turns around. . . . There's nothing wrong with that."
The School Board should be able to do the same, he said.