Parents of Blue Ridge Technical Academy students lambasted the Roanoke School Board on Tuesday night before the board voted unanimously not to renew the school's charter.

At a public hearing that preceded the board's monthly meeting, four parents accused the board and administrators of using the school to get federal funds, lying about available funding and waiting until the last minute to tell parents the school might close.

"Was everything done to keep this school open is my question," Karen Meiss said to the board.

Parents plan to investigate what happened with the school "until we get truthful answers and people are held accountable," said Alita Ashe, head of the school's parent organization. "This is now more of a case of honesty," she told the board.

Chairwoman Kathy Stockburger was the only board member to speak before voting on the charter later during the meeting.

"This has been an extremely difficult decision," she said. "We feel this is the best decision we can make at this time."

The board voted last month to close the school at the Higher Education Center in downtown Roanoke and move its career and technical programs into Patrick Henry High School, where they will be opened up to more students.

Also at the meeting, Lou Talbutt, executive director for student support services, presented the board with the fourth quarter discipline report. The report shows that discipline incidents are down an average of 36 percent - 40 percent at the high school level, 30 percent in middle schools and 45 percent in elementary schools - compared with the fourth quarter last year.

According to the report, which includes incidents that involved unknown or nonstudent offenders, a total of 2,332 incidents took place from March 23 to June 3 - 868 in the high schools, 1,132 in middle schools and 332 in elementary schools. Most of those offenses are considered minor and led to in-school disciplinary action.

Some of the offenses are required to be included on the Virginia School Performance Report Card that is published annually by the Department of Education. They include 73 acts that are classified as serious incidents of physical violence, 58 as fighting and 11 as possession of weapons other than firearms. No incidents involving the possession of firearms were reported.

Members of the 2004-05 School Board Safety Advisory Committee presented an update of school safety priorities for the past school year and recommendations for the upcoming year.

The committee reported that de-escalation training was completed at all schools, as recommended by the 2003-04 committee.

The training "is so important to improving the environment in city schools" and needs to be revisited frequently, said co-chair Kaye Hale.

The committee also said that discipline referral forms have been revised so principals can detail what de-escalation steps were taken before a student is referred to administration.

The committee recommends that the 2005-06 committee implement a peer mediation group at all schools, offer parents and staff at all schools training in how to recognize gang language, dress and symbols, and install cameras on all buses.

Also at the meeting:

Sharon Richardson, principal of Addison Middle School, was named executive director for student services, succeeding Talbutt.

Susan Willis, associate director of testing and remediation for Roanoke County schools, was named acting principal of William Fleming High School. She will replace Hallie Carr, who will become director of adjunct secondary programs and adult education.

Warren Crawford, executive director for elementary programs, was named principal of Monterey Elementary.

The board recognized vice-chair Robert Sparrow, who has served on the board for three years but did not seek reappointment, citing personal issues that will take up much of his time.

"It is with great humility that I attempted to serve the children of our district," Sparrow said.

The board welcomed lawyer David Carson, who will take Sparrow's seat next month.

It also recognized Doris Ennis, who has served as acting superintendent for about a year. Marvin Thompson will take over the superintendent's position July 1.

Thompson introduced August Bullock and Bernard Godek, who will begin their jobs June 27 as associate superintendent of instruction and associate superintendent of management, respectively.