THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 25, 1995 TAG: 9506250156
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines
Black members on City Council say the time is right for a majority-black school board, which would break a historic racial barrier on the appointed board and send an important message to the African-American community.
``The school system impacts minority students by a large proportion, and I think it would send a signal to the city that Norfolk has gone beyond its days of the status quo,'' said Councilman Herbert M. Collins Sr., one of three blacks on the seven-member City Council.
``I think it's important for the black community and it would be an important step for the city,'' said the Rev. Joseph N. Green Jr., another black councilman. ``We certainly have the qualified candidates to do that.''
Since 1987, the seven-member school board has had a mix of four whites and three blacks. The council is poised Tuesday to appoint four members. Two of those four board seats are held by blacks.
Slightly more than 60 percent of the students who attend public schools in Norfolk are black. The city's overall population is nearly 60 percent white.
Given the student body mix, a black-majority school board makes sense, the black councilmen said, but they said the qualifications of the nominees transcend race.
Collins said they want to return incumbents Ulysses Turner, a businessman and current board chairman, and Anna Dodson, a retired educator. They also want to appoint black educator Lucy R. Wilson, who served on the board for 12 years, four of them as chairwoman, before stepping down a year ago for personal reasons.
``We're going to appoint the most qualified persons for the school board, and these three persons are imminently qualified and bring a wealth of talent to the board,'' said Vice Mayor Paul R. Riddick, who is black.
A black lawyer, Doris L. Edmonds, also was nominated.
White council members declined comment on the potentially divisive race question. But they said honest disagreement may exist over whom council members consider the most qualified. Of the 12 school board nominees, eight are white.
Councilman G. Conoly Phillips nominated businessman James R. Herndon, who has close ties to the city's business community and chairs an advisory committee on vocational education for Norfolk schools.
Mayor Paul D. Fraim mentioned two other strong candidates, Dr. Theresa Whibley, a former teacher who now runs a private medical practice, and Barry Bishop, a former investment banker who is executive vice president of the Greater Norfolk Corp., a private non-profit group that promotes economic development.
Councilman Mason C. Andrews nominated Wilson, raising the hopes of black councilmen that they can forge a coalition for a black-majority board.
The council will discuss the appointments during a closed session before Tuesday's meeting.
``There are several good candidates out there, and we need to pay attention to a lot of considerations,'' Fraim said. ``There will a good discussion.''
The two white incumbents on the board are accountant Robert L. Hicks and attorney Joseph T. Waldo.
Hicks' position is in jeopardy because of public reaction to an altercation between him and another man last month following a traffic incident. The men filed counter assault and battery charges in General District Court. Riddick, who has lobbied against Hicks, said reappointing him would send the wrong message to the city's school children, who get expelled or suspended for fighting.
The last time the city's black leaders pushed for a majority-black school board was 1992, when black state Del. Jerrauld C. Jones, D-Norfolk, urged council to consider the idea.
Councilman Collins said that whites are a majority on all of the city's most important appointed boards, including the one overseeing public housing, which he said has a dramatic impact on the city's minorities.
``When it comes to blacks being a majority on one of these boards,'' Collins said, ``there seems to be a problem.''
As City Council wrestles with internal politics, two Norfolk residents have begun a petition drive for an elected school board.
Two past efforts have failed, and Norfolk is the only city in South Hampton Roads that hasn't approved the idea since the General Assembly made elected school boards a local option in 1992. Organizers of the latest effort hope to collect enough signatures to place the issue on the November ballot.
``It's a matter of community involvement, and if the city is going in the direction of citizen participation it seems logical to have an elected school board,'' said organizer Ernie Edwards, a Ghent resident. Donna Briggs, a Ghent resident who is one of the 12 people seeking a school board seat, also is heading up the effort. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
Councilman Herbert M. Collins Sr.
Mayor Paul D. Fraim
by CNB