ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 14, 1995 TAG: 9512140043
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
For Marilyn Curtis, the issue in the dispute over Frank Tota's consultant's report on funding for magnet schools is a legal contract - not politics, as the former Roanoke school superintendent has charged.
"We are not trying to pick a fight with him," said Curtis, vice chairwoman of the Roanoke School Board. "We want him to live up to the contract that we inherited."
Board member Marsha Ellison said the former superintendent has not done enough research on potential funding sources for magnet schools. "If you don't do a job, you don't get paid," Ellison said.
The board has decided Tota's report is unacceptable and has refused to pay his full $35,000 annual fee. It has offered to pay him one-third of his fee for his work so far this year.
Curtis is the only member who was on the board in 1989 when the former superintendent's early retirement deal was negotiated. She voted against it. The six other members have been appointed since then.
Chairman Nelson Harris said the current board members do not agree with the early retirement package and never would have approved it. Yet they must administer it.
"We are dealing with taxpayers' money and contractual standards," Harris said. "We have been entrusted to see that the contract is met."
Despite the controversy over the contract when it was approved, Harris denied that the board has rejected Tota's report for political reasons.
The 18-page report initially was rejected because it was handwritten. Harris returned it to Tota and told him it would have to be typed.
Tota, now school superintendent in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., said Wednesday he never knew that the handwritten format was an issue until after he submitted this year's report.
He compiled a 28-page handwritten report on the status and needs of the magnet schools last year, the first in his seven-year early retirement contract. That report was sent to then-chairman Charles Day.
Tota can type, but he said it was his understanding that a secretary in the Roanoke school system would type the report.
Tota said he did not receive any complaint about last year's report and assumed the handwritten version was acceptable.
The former superintendent said he was in Roanoke when he completed this year's report, and understood that school officials wanted it quickly so they could apply for a magnet school grant. He gave the handwritten version to Curtis because Harris was out of town, and said he understood again that a city secretary would type it.
"I could have typed it, but it did not seem to be an issue with them," Tota said.
But Harris said school officials were not in a rush to get the report and Tota should have typed it.
Harris, who became chairman in July 1994, said he handled Tota's report differently than Day did.
When Day received Tota's first report in the spring of 1994, he authorized the full payment of $35,000 and filed the report with school officials. Board members then were notified that it was available.
Day would not comment Wednesday on why he accepted the handwritten report.
Harris said he decided to return this year's handwritten report and ask Tota to type it. When the typed version arrived, Harris said, he shared it with all board members for them to decide whether it was acceptable.
"Because it is a sensitive matter, I wanted the decision to be handled by the full board," Harris said. The board decided that it was unacceptable and asked Tota for more information.
Tota, who said he might go to court to collect the rest of his fee, said his report includes research on private companies, foundations and other organizations that provide funds for magnet schools.
"I identified potential resources that could help. The next thing is that someone will have to apply for the money," he said.
Tota helped win almost $17 million in federal magnet school grants during his 12 years as superintendent in Roanoke. The early retirement contract required him to work initially on funding, government procedures, technical advice and other magnet school issues.
But the board said the former superintendent has not provided enough details on the funding sources, including the history of grants by companies and foundations, amounts of money available, kinds of programs funded and specific school divisions that have received grants.
The board also has asked Tota to document the time he has spent on the report.
Under the seven-year early retirement deal, Tota is required to do consultant work for 160 hours a year - that's 20 days - to receive the $35,000 fee, which is based on 35 percent of his salary when he retired in 1993.
The controversial retirement package was negotiated when former member James M. Turner Jr. was chairman.
The deal came into question in March 1993 when Tota accepted the Dobbs Ferry position and Turner said he would be free to leave Roanoke without working for the consulting fee. Turner said the money was intended as a benefit and that the former board did not expect Tota to work. But other board members at the time became angry at the idea of paying Tota for doing nothing.
LENGTH: Medium: 95 linesby CNB