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

DATE: MONDAY, August 2, 1993                   TAG: 9308020038
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN ROANOKE, ISSUE HASN'T TAKEN HOLD

But things have been strangely silent in the city.

Downtown in the registrar's office, there's no talk of whether so-and-so will come up with the minimum 4,260 signatures. Nobody checks computer records to make sure the names are valid. Nobody tallies the results.

Unlike other localities in this region, nobody here has taken up the cause.

Are Roanokers happy with the current system, under which City Council appoints School Board members?

Or are they apathetic?

Perhaps neither, says Marsha Ellison, PTA Central Council president.

"We're watching the situation," she said.

Ellison is concerned that electing school boards without granting them taxing authority would only place them in a political fix.

"If you can't raise your own money, you still would be at the beck and whim of City Council," she said. "From everybody I've spoken to, we think it would be almost a more difficult situation than what we have now."

But on a philosophical level, she agrees with the idea.

"We believe in government of the many vs. government of the few," she said.

The Roanoke Education Association also prefers elected school boards to the current system, said Mercedes James, who will become president of the teachers' organization Aug. 1. But like the Parent-Teacher Association, it has done nothing to put the issue on the ballot.

That is because like the PTA, the REA would prefer to see school boards gain fiscal autonomy, James said. Without it, she added, the issue is "not a No. 1 priority."

Roanoke School Board member Jay Turner suggested there may be no movement afoot in the city because Roanokers are happy with the way things stand.

"We have problems," he said. "But I think the system overall is strong."

So does Vice Chairman Wendy O'Neil.

She offered this explanation: Members of the city's School Board already provide the racial, socio-economic, gender, age, geographic and religious diversity people want.

"Our citizens can see themselves in the composition of the board," she said.

Ellison said the PTA might later take a position in favor of elected school boards and could petition to put it on next year's ballot.

If it does, it will face more paperwork and regulations than those who gathered their signatures this year, because of changes in state law.

According to Michael Brown, secretary of the State Board of Elections, anyone wishing to circulate a petition after Jan. 1 must:

File a copy of the petition ahead of time with the clerk of the Circuit Court, along with documents showing his or her name, address, organization's name and address (if any).

Take an oath promising to personally witness all of the signatures.

Make sure every person who signs the petition dates his or her signature and gives a Social Security number. Omitting the Social Security number, however, will not disqualify that signature.

Return the signed petitions to the court within nine months.

The changes, said Brown, will prevent people from leaving petitions unattended in businesses and from holding onto signatures from one year to the next. A complete list of the new requirements and information about how to circulate petitions is available from his office.