Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 2, 1993 TAG: 9308020031
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
One spoke to her.
She took her daughter to a School Board meeting, hoping they could address board members there. They could not, they were told. It was a personnel matter; and besides, they were not on the agenda.
The board allowed the teacher to speak - briefly - then voted to move her to another school.
Now Jones wants to cast her vote - for a new School Board.
"I just feel like they're not interested in what the parents think or have to say," she said. "I wonder where their interests really lie."
Residents all over the region are starting to think like Jones. Unhappy with their school boards - or with the process for selecting them - they have been circulating petitions to put election of school boards on the ballot this fall.
Petitioners in Bedford, Botetourt, Roanoke, Floyd and Montgomery counties succeeded in gathering enough signatures to put the issue to a vote in November.
If last year's experience is any indication, the referendums have a good chance of passing. In 1992, each of 42 localities that put the issue on the ballot - including Pulaski and Craig counties - approved it.
In this area, only Roanoke shows no movement toward pushing for elected school boards. Petitioners in Franklin County and Salem continue to work toward Wednesday's filing deadline.
Some, like Jones, hope direct elections will give more weight to parents' voices. Others are philosophically disgruntled at being denied a right that is enjoyed by every other state in the nation.
"I don't usually do things like this," said Linda Webb, a Botetourt County parent who organized people to gather signatures in Blue Ridge, Buchanan, Eagle Rock, Troutville and Cloverdale.
She got involved, she said, because she felt the current School Board took too long making decisions and needed more public accountability. Others, apparently, thought the same.
"A lot of people, I think, have grudges," Webb said. "When they hear [the petition] is going around, they want to sign."
They are less willing to put pen to paper in Salem.
"Folks are very apathetic," said Charles Switzer, who had collected 400 to 500 signatures as of last week. "They're just not real crazy about change."
Switzer was not optimistic about reaching the minimum of 1,215 signatures - 10 percent of the city's registered voters - in time.
"I don't know whether we'll get enough names or not," he said. "My guess is, we will not."
In some localities, resistance to change goes beyond apathy, to downright opposition.
Ed Kohinke, a Roanoke County supervisor, launched a one-man organization called "It Ain't Broke" to fight the elected-school-board movement and keep the current system in place. Roanoke County is one of 35 localities in Virginia that use a judicially appointed selection committee to appoint school board members.
He initially welcomed a third option, pushed by fellow Supervisor Lee Eddy, on the grounds that it might dilute support for elected boards. On Eddy's suggestion, the Board of Supervisors voted to place a referendum on this November's ballot that would allow supervisors to appoint School Board members.
Boards appointed in this manner run the majority of Virginia's 139 school divisions.
But Kohinke now says he is worried that voters will pass one of the referendums at the expense of the current system.
"I was hoping for a multiple-choice question" that would allow voters to pick one of Virginia's three methods for selecting school boards, he said. "This may not be a good thing."
It could also be a confusing thing, if both referendums pass. County Attorney Paul Mahoney has said he might have to consult a Circuit Court judge to determine what to do in that event.
Kohinke said he has run into many people in Roanoke County who share his view that the system works well, as is. None, however, has volunteered to join his organization.
One man, Kohinke said, told him he feared elected school boards would bring forth candidates with one-item agendas. As an example, he cited a Montgomery County group that lobbied to rename the spring and winter academic breaks after Easter and Christmas.
Montgomery parent Lynn Linkous pointed to that same event for markedly different reasons.
It showed, she said, the School Board's reluctance to listen to parents. A majority of those who turned out for the holiday vote favored renaming the breaks, an idea at which the board "more or less thumbed their nose," she said.
Likewise, the board ignored opposition to its Family Life curriculum, which some parents argued began too early in a child's education, Linkous said.
"We have a School Board, in my opinion, that does not hear the voice of the people at all," she said.
School Board members, for their part, say parents have ample opportunity to be heard under the current system.
The Montgomery County School Board spent four meetings and "quite a few sleepless nights" on the holiday break issue, Chairman Roy Vickers Jr. said. The former chairman even resigned over the matter.
"I think it's totally unfair" to charge the board with turning a deaf ear, he said, adding that he estimated the crowd was evenly divided.
Parents in Bedford County are likewise heard by the School Board, Chairman Lorenza Davis said.
He answers all phone calls and researches every issue about which a parent inquires, he said.
Vickers doubts that changing the selection process will accomplish anything other than deterring qualified people from running. Many will be reluctant to put money and time into a campaign or enter into a political battle, he said.
Several members of the Roanoke County School Board, including Chairman Frank Thomas, have said they would not run, should the board become a political entity. Montgomery County's Vickers, however, said he would.
And he expects he will have to.
Based on last year's results, Vickers places the referendum's chances for passing at "100 percent."
If it passes, he said, two other things should follow: School boards should be given complete fiscal autonomy - including the power to raise taxes - and board members should be paid more.
Montgomery County School Board members receive $150 per month for about 40 hours of work, he said.
"Obviously, money is not the reason we do this."
by CNB