SUPPORTERS NEED TO SCRAMBLE FOR ELECTED BOARDS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 21, 1992                   TAG: 9202210402
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
SUPPORTERS NEED TO SCRAMBLE FOR ELECTED BOARDS
Although proponents of elected school boards have worked patiently for years to get approval from Virginia's General Assembly, they'll face a mad dash to the courthouses to get the issue on the ballot this year.
Virginia is the only state in the nation that appoints its school board members.
A bill authorizing cities and counties to hold individual elections to change the selection method passed the legislature and now is headed to Gov. Douglas Wilder's desk.
If he signs it, supporters at the local level would have 34 days to collect enough signatures to force a November referendum. If they fail, they would have to try again next year. They also would have to wait until July 1, the date the measure would become law, to begin circulating petitions.
"I'd just as soon strike while the iron is hot," said Pam Pouchot, a York County parent who plans to head a petition drive there. "As soon as the law allows, we are going to begin."
School board elections could not begin until 1994. But referendums to change the selection method could be held as early as November, if petitions signed by 10 percent of a locality's registered voters are submitted to the circuit court by Aug. 3, or 90 days before the general election.
On registrar, Mary Doxey of Newport News, said petitions should include 50 percent more names than required because many people who sign petitions are not registered voters. She said a list of perhaps 10,000 names would be necessary to get 6,500 legal signatures.
The task of getting the petitions completed on deadline is even more difficult in larger cities.
Diana L. Milewczik, a Newport News parent who has been working to get elected school boards, said she had hoped to be able to catch people coming out of the polls during the City Council elections in May to ensure that most of the signatures on the petition would be valid.
She said she is looking into whether localities can get an exception to the deadlines for this year.
A spokeswoman for Del. David Brickley, D-Woodbridge, sponsor of the school board bill, said his office also was looking into the problem.
But officials in both the state Board of Elections and the governor's office offered little hope for relief.
Del. Phillip A. Hamilton, R-Newport News, said one option would be to run the bill through the legislature again as an emergency measure, which would take effect immediately.
Such a vote would require 80 percent approval in both houses, but Brickley's bill did not have quite that much support in the Senate.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB