Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 31, 1994 TAG: 9403310009
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ray Reed
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A: Yes, you can run.
If you win, you'll have to make a career choice.
The General Assembly passed a bill this year making employees of a school board ineligible to serve on the board that employs them.
The vote was 94-4 in the House and 39-0 in the Senate. An emergency clause puts the measure into law as soon as the governor signs it, which is expected before April 7.
Conflict-of-interest laws that already exist would make a teacher ineffective on a school board, because about 60 percent of the board's actions involve personnel matters. A teacher in the same school system couldn't participate in those votes.
Clearly there's a basic reluctance about letting an officeholder vote on his or her own pay or job security.
Roanoke County is awaiting the governor's signature on another bill, authorizing it to hold School Board elections in November for Windsor Hills, Vinton and Hollins districts. Cave Spring and Catawba districts elect their School Board members in 1995 under the bill, which is housekeeping to carry out the voters' decision last fall that school boards should be elected.
Durable powers
Q: Can you explain the difference between general power of attorney and durable power of attorney? G.H., Roanoke
A: In simplest terms, a general power of attorney usually ends if the person granting the power becomes incapacitated.
A durable power of attorney contains specific language saying that it stays in effect through incapacity until death.
This isn't thorough enough to cover individual power-of-attorney situations, and that's deliberate. Details fill pages of the state code.
The number factor
Q: What determines the first three digits of our Social Security number? Is it when we were born, or our birthplace? C.D., Roanoke
A: The state where you applied for a Social Security number determines the first three digits. Age and place of birth are irrelevant.
Each state has a range of numbers assigned for its first three digits. Most numbers acquired in Virginia seem to begin with 22.
Leap year 2000
Q: Will the calendar for leap year 2000 be different from other leap years? Isn't there a few minutes added? E.W., Daleville
A: The year 2000 will indeed be a leap year, which is rare for turn-of-the-century, or centesimal, years. It's a minute adjustment that comes once every 400 years.
Ordinarily, centuries turn over without a Feb. 29.
A monk and astronomer called the Venerable Bede discovered, about 1,200 years ago, that the year is 11 minutes and 14 seconds short of 365\ days. That's enough to knock the calendar out of whack by three days every 400 years. We adjust by skipping leap year three out of four centesimal years.
Got a question about something that might affect other people too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Give us a call at 981-3118. Maybe we can find the answer.
by CNB