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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 1, 1993                   TAG: 9312010364
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-7   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium

PULASKI SCHOOL BOARD HEARS REPORTS ON VIOLENCE, ELECTIONS

The board also learned that the state is still struggling with the implementation of elected school boards, a method approved by voter referendums in an increasing number of Virginia localities.

``It'll be 10 years, really, before we see how all that works out,'' predicted Kathleen S. Mehfoud, a lawyer with Hazel & Thomas in Richmond who has specialized in educational issues.

``We've got to see what comes from Richmond on that one,'' agreed County Attorney Tom McCarthy, who is coordinating with Del. Tommy Baker, R-Dublin, on how Pulaski County should go about electing its School Board members in the future.

Plans for school board elections by Virginia localities must be submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice for approval. Mehfoud said some Virginia cities with elections in May probably will not be able to get their plans approved in time.

Also unsettled is the question of whether all school board seats are filled in one election, or if terms can be staggered to avoid the possibility of a totally-new board with no experience.

``Do sitting board members lose the remainder of their terms or can they serve it out?'' Mehfoud said. ``There is not a clear answer.'' The matter may be addressed by the 1994 General Assembly, she said.

Mehfoud met with the School Board at a special meeting to go over some of the new legislation.

She said state law now requires every child admitted as a new or transfer student to have an affidavit showing that the student has not been expelled from some other school system for drug or alcohol abuse, weapons violations or violently injuring someone.

This way, schools know what they're getting. It also prevents children who get in trouble in one locality from simply moving elsewhere with another family member and enrolling in the school system there, she said. Criminal penalties can be imposed for ``material falsification'' of the affidavit.

New legislation also allows school systems to refuse to take students expelled elsewhere for problems in one of those three areas for up to a year.

Mehfoud said her concern with that legislation is that she thought school systems already had that authority involving students in general. Now that authority is limited to students expelled over substance abuse, weapons or violence and there is a one-year limit.

She has the same concern over the state Board of Education being mandated to develop statewide guidelines for expulsion.

That comes close to a statewide uniform system of disciplinary action and a loss of local controls, which Mehfoud said she views ``as a serious infringement upon the rights of school boards.''

A locality's own code of conduct ``will go out the window and you'll be bound by what the state says,'' she said. ``I don't think that Pulaski County necessarily wants to be bound by the same rules as the city of Richmond.''

But legislation aimed at reducing school violence is needed, she said.

``There have been places where kids have committed a murder and they have not been incarcerated,'' Mehfoud said. ``We've had situations where a student has murdered somebody over the weekend, [then] they show up for school on Monday.''

Another new law allows school systems to assign students to alternative education classes in such cases, where charges involving substance abuse, weapons or violence are pending. School systems now are supposed to be advised by the courts system when charges of that kind against a student come before them.

A change in state textbook policies effective in July could cost Pulaski County and other localities money.

A fee to buy textbooks for student rental is incorporated in the money that the state sends to localities based on average daily student attendance, Mehfoud said. So the General Assembly reasoned that localities should not be charging textbook fees to students.

Pulaski County has been getting about $9,000 from the state for textbooks, which is nowhere near what it takes to buy them.

``They don't realize what textbooks cost,'' School Board Chairman Ron Chaffin said.