Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 18, 1994 TAG: 9408180091
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
Karen Clymer, a special education teacher in Pulaski County for eight years, will be coordinator of pupil personnel services.
Clymer has been active in community service, serving on the New River Valley Community Services Board, New River Valley Association for the Mentally Retarded, Council for Community Enrichment, Special Olympics, and as a 4-H and United Way volunteer. ``I'm a person who feels you need to give back in the community,'' she said. She also has a background in nursing.
Nancy Ballinger, who has taught at Pulaski County High School for the past 12 years and in Roanoke for two years before that, is coordinator of gifted and talented programs for county schools.
She has already worked with many gifted and talented students in honors, drama, yearbook and other classes and said she believes that those students need an advocate. Like Clymer, she has a master's degree from Radford University, and is enrolled in Virginia Tech's doctoral program.
Pamela Simpson, who received her doctorate in curriculum instruction this summer at Virginia Tech, is the system's coordinator of elementary and middle schools instructional programs.
Simpson has 14 years of professional experience in Ohio, Georgia, Delaware and South Carolina. Her husband was in the military and then graduate school, she said, and she moved around with him. By the time she reached South Carolina, she was certified to teach in six states and had taught in every elementary grade.
All three positions are new, part of an administrative staff reorganization that followed the departures of some key people and a shifting of job responsibilities.
``We're just elated that we've been able to find the caliber of personnel that we're recommending to you this morning,'' Superintendent Bill Asbury told the board Tuesday. He said the recommendations resulted from a long screening and selection process including extensive interviews, and were based on educational background, experience, temperment and the ability to work with others.
The three candidates did have a few seconds of surprise when School Board Chairman Ron Chaffin told them that the board had a list of 10 questions they needed to answer. They were relieved when they found out he was joking.
by CNB