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First, officers' safety was compromised; then, public confidence was shaken in the Roanoke sheriff's leadership of her department after news broke of its participation in training that intentionally put officers downrange of live gunfire. Now, Roanoke County has decided to end joint operation of its training facilities with city law enforcement agencies. In an editorial Sunday, we'll write that the training fiasco should be a central issue in Sheriff Octavia Johnson's bid for re-election in November.

Virginia's elections board is developing new rules that will require candidates for public office - starting with Roanoke Del. Onzlee Ware - to document how they've spent campaign contributions. In an unscheduled editorial, we'll applaud the higher accountability standard.

For Thursday: Roanoke School board members can't talk about personnel matters with the public, and they can't say  what they intend to do about the employment of William Fleming High School administrators accused of cheating on the SOLs. They have explained the process involved in firing a principal. It's long and involved.

It would be in the students' best interest if principal Susan Willis resigned.

For Monday we will call on the school board to fire William Fleming principal Susan Willis and possibly the other school administrators, depending on their level of involement, who schemed to boost the school's SOL scores by preventing some students from taking the exams.

Here's today's news story.

For Friday: The race is on. Roanoke County supervisors up for re-election are facing challengers this year. One, Joe McNamara, already lost in the Republican primary. Now that victor along with two incumbents will face challenges from Democratic candidates.

We still think partisanship has no place in local government. But the system is what it is, and challengers with a party's backing might stand a better chance than go-it-alone candidates.

First, define the relationship

Ron Herring

Herring, of Roanoke, is the retired CEO of Lutheran Family Services of Virginia and is an adjunct faculty member at Radford University.

After the announcement of that Roanoke's city manager will be leaving, the chair of the council search committee observed that "now we need to establish the criteria for selection of a new city manager." Whoa, Nellie!

There is a lot of work to do before any thinking about criteria. Selection of a leader or manager is considered the single most important task of a governing body. Haste will make waste and there will not be an opportunity for a do-over.

Read more.

David Carson

Carson lives in Roanoke and is chairman of the Roanoke City School Board.

This past school year has been a challenging one for all employees of the Roanoke City Public School system. On top of the incredible strain placed on our employees by the requirements of the No Child Left Behind legislation, they also had to endure funding, closure and employment issues.

To finish the year, they have now had to learn through a newspaper article about personnel recommendations and associated salary adjustments approved by the school board on May 21. The school board's failure to anticipate and appreciate the negative perception that would accompany such an approval is a tremendous oversight.

Read here.

Apologies for the delay in posting. We've experienced a series of unfortunate difficulties today.

For Tuesday: Several years ago, Roanoke embarked on a transformation of a block of Day Avenue from a street of transients to one of a new up-and-coming neighborhood. It was a good plan that soured with the housing market.

Now a new effort is underway. It's not exactly as envisioned, but it should work out well.

For Friday: Shame on the Roanoke school board for trying to hide raises given to 10 administrators. If board members could justify the raises -- during a time that other employees have lost their jobs or are under wage freezes -- then they should have made the case in public and without the appearance of trying to slip them through undetected.

At council's request Roanoke City Manager Darlene Burcham plans to leave her post, but not until March 1. For Wednesday, we'll write in support of retaining Roanoke's strong-manager form of government but suggest the next manager also possess strong communication skills.