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

DATE: TUESDAY, December 14, 1993                   TAG: 9312140268
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LEE B. EDDY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SCHOOL TERMS

ON NOV. 2, the voters of Roanoke County clearly expressed their preference for an elected school board, as did the voters in every Virginia locality that had that referendum question on the ballot.

This means more than half the school systems in the commonwealth will be starting the change from appointed to elected school boards in 1994 or 1995. Unfortunately, current state law does not solve the related transition problems. In Roanoke County, for example, the current staggered school board terms end June 30 of various years, whereas the law covering elected school boards states that the terms must end Dec. 31.

Also, state law will require that the terms of the elected school board members from Roanoke County's five magisterial districts be co-terminus with those of the corresponding members of the Board of Supervisors. In every case, the terms of existing appointed school board members will have to be shortened or lengthened to effect the transition.

In Roanoke County, the Board of Supervisors has scheduled a public hearing for today to determine if a charter change should be requested that will provide for all five school board members being elected in November 1995, with two new members having two-year terms and three new members having four-year terms. Then, in each succeeding odd-numbered year, two or three members would be elected for four-year terms.

To bring order to the confusion that will otherwise occur in many of the state's school divisions, I strongly recommend that the 1994 session of the General Assembly enact clarifying legislation to spell out how the transitions are to be accomplished statewide. Without this broad approach, each locality will have to come to the General Assembly with a special request for its own set of transition conditions.

In this statewide transition legislation, I hope the process will allow some holdover appointed school board members to serve at the same time as some new elected members. Having all new elected members starting to serve at one time would be disruptive and counterproductive.

It is an especially negative outlook in Roanoke County, where a new superintendent will have been on the job only 18 months. I fear that the disruption resulting from a new administrative head plus a complete new school board could significantly impact the education of our children.

Therefore, I would urge the 1994 General Assembly to enact statewide school board transition legislation that initially will allow some holdover appointed members to serve with the new elected members. Furthermore I respectfully urge my colleagues on the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors to re-evaluate the proposal to elect all five school board members simultaneously in November 1995. Our system of public schools is too important to be hammered with an unnecessarily jarring transition process.

\ Lee B. Eddy is vice chairman of the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors.

by CNB