Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 18, 1994 TAG: 9405180069
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Long
The applicants - two for Blacksburg's District G seat and six, including incumbent Bob Goncz, for the Christiansburg/Ellett District B seat - also answered a series of questions from the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors centering on budget issues, long-term school system goals, Family Life Education and the challenges facing teachers.
It's a familiar ritual of county government but one that will go the way of the manual typewriter with the first round of School Board elections in November 1995.
The Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing on the eight applicants at 7 p.m. Monday in the Montgomery County Courthouse. Meanwhile, the deadline to apply for a third seat, representing the Blacksburg area's District F, is Thursday. The board will hold interviews and a public hearing on that spot later, but will make all three 18-month appointments in June.
The eight candidates for the first two seats included four men and four women.
Five - Peggy Arrington and Wat Hopkins in District G and Suzanne G. Hamrick, Deborah G. Mayo and Delores Snell in District B - said they are interested in running for an elected School Board seat. Goncz, Dr. S. Ross Mackay and Dan Neel are undecided.
Seven of the eight either had, have or will have children in the Montgomery school system. Mackay, the exception, has five adult children who grew up in New York.
Arrington, Hopkins, Hamrick and Neel said they support Family Life Education, the state-mandated sex education program that conservative Christian and former statewide candidate Mike Farris last month predicted would be eliminated by next year. The supervisors didn't ask Snell, Mayo and Goncz about it. Mackay said he didn't how he felt about the program because he is unfamiliar with it.
Only Mackay, a naturalized citizen and World War II Royal Air Force veteran from Great Britain, was asked about his beliefs on the separation of church and state. He said it would be nice to include prayers and hymns in "some sort of voluntary way" in schools, but he didn't think any child should be made to feel uncomfortable.
In District G, the candidates include:
Hopkins, 44, an associate professor of communications at Tech and longtime observer of the School Board and Board of Supervisors while he served as legislative liaison for his son's elementary school PTA. Hopkins, whose wife teaches at Prices Fork Elementary, is the only applicant with a spouse or relative who works for the school system.
The son of a North Carolina tobacco farmer, Hopkins said of the annual budget tug of war, "I think it's the job of the School Board to push the Board of Supervisors."
Arrington, 42, who owns a computer software firm with her husband. Though budgeting is something she wants to "become more aware of," she said the School Board's former tactic of proposing several versions of the budget - big, small or no spending increase - appeals to her.
The District B contenders include:
Snell, 53, a mother of five who is studying to be a paralegal at New River Valley Community College. Snell was the only candidate to call for increased funding for the schools. "I feel we need to give more money per pupil," she said.
"I think the school system is ... good for the children but we can always do more," said Snell, the sole black applicant. She cited mathematics as one area of instruction in which Montgomery schools could improve.
Neel, 40, the finance director for the Roanoke Regional Airport Commission. Neel said the long-simmering School Board-supervisors dispute over consolidating finance and purchasing operations should be resolved promptly. "The courts are not the place to settle it," he said.
Neel said he wanted to see the business community more involved in the school system in terms of what they're looking for from graduates. "It's got to be a partnership," he said.
Mayo, 42, a philosophy professor at Tech. She called for closer ties between the university and the public school system. The toughest task for classroom teachers is "how to motivate the student to see what is so valuable about what is being taught," Mayo said.
On the quality of Montgomery schools, Mayo said "that many of the programs are there and adequate. What's missing is a feeling of real value for excellence in education.
"Maybe there's some fresh ideas that come out of working in the university," she said.
Mackay, 66, an orthopedic surgeon who practices at Montgomery Regional Hospital and also works with the Tech athletic program. He said he was motivated to apply by his concern for his 12 grandchildren and calls for community service he heard from Gen. Dwight Eisenhower as a young college student and just six months ago from a Florida-based religious broadcaster.
"The most important thing for a child is love. After love is a good, complete education," Mackay said.
Hamrick, 47, taught in four Virginia school divisions including Pulaski and Floyd counties and now is an adjunct faculty member at Radford University's school of education. She said the biggest challenge facing teachers is maintaining discipline in classrooms.
The quality of county schools "all depends on the teacher," Hamrick said. "Good direction comes from the top ... but the final burden sits on the teacher."
Goncz, 48, an executive with Eastern Repair & Fabrication Inc., who has been on the School Board since 1986 and is now vice chairman. "I started out with darker hair than I have now, and lower blood pressure," he joked.
Goncz said he would give the school system "between a C and a B" on its overall quality. He's pointed to some reduction in pupil-teacher ratios during his terms.
On budget issues, Goncz said he thinks an elected School Board should eventually get taxing authority, rather than submitting unrealistic budgets and then playing "loser's elbow" by blaming the Board of Supervisors for not providing sufficient funding.
by CNB