State School

Superintendent Linda Schrenko said Thursday night that, "If I have

to run for governor to be state school superintendent, I'll run for governor."

Asked directly

if she planned to run for the top slot now occupied by Roy Barnes, Schrenko

explained that she wants to be state school superintendent, but feels

somewhat powerless in the face of sweeping reforms instigated by Barnes

and the passage of House Bill 1187 last spring.

Schrenko and

Barnes have clashed publicly over the bill, also known as the A+ Reform

Act. At this point, Schrenko is preparing to push for reform of the reform

package during the 2001 legislative session, set to open mid-January.

Schrenko had

a town hall meeting on education issues recently at the LaFayette Educational

Center, attended by about 60 concerned parents, teachers, Board of Education

members, school administrators and local legislators.

Now in her

second term as state school superintendent, Schrenko said she would seek

to change the bill as it is now written... to "fix it."

"I will

recommend to the legislature what you recommend... the bottom line is

you have to ask for it," Schrenko said.

Schrenko said

she is concerned about the growing teacher shortage in the state, and

would like to see teacher retirement rules changed and offer incentives

for them to stay in the system longer. "We started the school year

with [teacher] vacancies," Schrenko said. "That tells me we

have a problem."

She also would

like to see funding restored for hiring paraprofessionals as well as for

non-vocational labs. A proposal to lengthen the middle school day and

eliminate exploratories in order to increase instructional time also came

under attack by Schrenko. "The middle grades took the biggest hit,"

she said, referring to HB 1187.

She estimated

that 81 percent of the state's middle schools would be forced into a longer

day under the current plan. Fayette County middle schools would be exempt

because of the number of students testing above the desired average.

Schrenko said

five weeks of the school year are taken up with test taking, which costs

an estimated $40 million per year. She recommends one test to be given,

in place of the many standardized tests administered to students throughout

the year.

Some of the

issues parents asked Schrenko to take note of included discipline, the

possible return to one diploma, and school safety. The one issue Schrenko

said she and the governor do agree on is "reading" as the educational

priority and focus of the upcoming legislative session.