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

DATE: THURSDAY, February 17, 1994                   TAG: 9402170267
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

MONTGOMERY SCHOOL BOARD TO REINSTATE MORALE SURVEY

The Montgomery County School Board, in its shortest meeting ever, decided to reinstate its annual morale survey in the schools. The board had surveyed teachers and administrators in the 1990-91 and 1991-92 school years, but did not last year.

Virginia Tech Acting Dean of Education Wayne Worner ran the survey the first two times. He told the board Tuesday, "I'm not here as a salesman this evening," and in fact, suggested that giving the survey now might skew the results, as teachers could be embittered by budget battles.

The board discussed breaking down results by schools, adding classification of respondents by gender and race.

"I think the fastest way to kill this is to do it school by school and send it to the School Board," Worner said, because teachers would fear that their school would be seen as a bad apple if morale was lower than others'.

Although only 18 black teachers work in Montgomery County, and only two on the high school level, members agreed to add race and gender to the survey.

The survey will cost $2,500, which Worner called a professional discount.

Assistant Superintendent Jim Sellers made an announcement at the end of the meeting that a high school student hospitalized at Montgomery Regional Hospital for meningitis has a noninfectious variety. He did not further identify the student.

Superintendent Herman Bartlett said that Montgomery County schools had been closed Tuesday because Christiansburg Primary, Prices Fork and Elliston-Lafayette elementary schools had no electricity. The system has now used up the two teacher workdays and the day of spring break they had alloted for makeup days, and the next snow day will extend the school year further into June.

by CNB