
DATE: Monday, September 29, 1997            TAG: 9709270320

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SERIES: Focus: Election '97 

SOURCE: BY TONI GUAGENTI, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   97 lines

AT ISSUE: BEACH TEACHER SAYS SIMPLE ANSWERS DON'T SOLVE THE PROBLEMS

Betty Montcalm wants to make sure that when candidates talk about education, they're not speaking the ABCs of politics.

The Indian River Middle School teacher knows that when politics come into play, the students are the only losers.

That's why Montcalm doesn't want lofty platforms, just plausible solutions to problems that persist in the classroom.

``Usually, simple answers don't solve the problems,'' Montcalm said recently at her two-story Virginia Beach home. ``You need to think through the repercussions of what you're saying.''

Montcalm sees where government intervention could do some good in the classroom.

Like the need for fewer students in each classroom, which could be accomplished by hiring more teachers.

Last year, Montcalm's sixth-grade reading class numbered 18.

``With 18 kids you can get to everybody every single day,'' she said.

This year, one of two science classes is filled with 30 children.

In a team of two teachers, each with 30 kids, Montcalm said she was still stumbling over students' names into the second week of school.

But it's not just class size that worries Montcalm. It's paying teachers what they're worth.

This hits close to home for Montcalm, who opted to stay at home to raise her two children - Bob and Anne - after teaching for 10 years in New York and Northern Virginia.

After a 12-year hiatus from teaching, Montcalm, now fiftysomething, tried to return to the profession in 1990.

Armed with her experience, a master's degree in elementary supervision and years of motherhood, Montcalm tried to land a job teaching.

A full-time job was out of her grasp.

``I cost a few bucks more,'' she explained. ``How do you weigh that experience with the inexperience?''

She substituted here, substituted there.

``Finally someone was willing to take a chance with me,'' she recalled.

That chance came at Indian River Middle School, where she's in her fifth year as a social studies and science teacher.

It's not only important to pay more experienced teachers what they're worth, Montcalm said, but first-year teachers - who could leave the state for other, better paying states - also should be paid more.

Because of money, she said, ``some very qualified people leave the state.''

That's why reducing class size by adding teachers isn't as simple as multiplying the numbers, she said.

She said if she were a beginning teacher and didn't have ties to Virginia, she would leave for a state that pays its teachers better. Montcalm and her husband, Bob, are empty nesters.

``Virginia has to remain competitive,'' she said. MEMO: CANDIDATES RESPOND

Betty Montcalm's question: You plan to invest more money in

education. What would your priorities be: adding more teachers to the

classroom, upgrading technology, improving facilities, increasing

teacher salaries or administering more tests?

DONALD S. BEYER JR.: As priorities, I will work to end social

promotion by holding students accountable for their work, and providing

summer school or after-school help for those who need it.

I will bring discipline to classrooms and provide safe schoolhouses.

To attract the best teachers, I will restore teacher salaries to the

national average and demand higher standards for licensing and

certification.