THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 14, 1995 TAG: 9509140339
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VANEE VINES, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
School Board members should be elected at-large, the City Council said at Tuesday's work session.
The council reached that decision by consensus and then directed the administration to craft an at-large plan for Portsmouth's first School Board election next May.
``We've had majority-white boards and councils and majority-black boards and councils,'' Mayor Gloria O. Webb said in an interview Wednesday. ``We're a small city and we don't want to chop ourselves up.''
Moving away from an at-large system would increase racial and neighborhood tension, she said.
On Oct. 9, the city will hold a public hearing in City Council chambers to find out what residents think about at-large School Board elections.
By late October, the council will choose a plan for electing board members. The city is scheduled to submit a plan to the U.S. Justice Department by Nov. 1. Because Virginia has a history of voting-rights abuses, the department must approve city election plans. It has up to 60 days to respond to Portsmouth's submission.
At a public hearing last month, eight of nine residents said they favored a ward or district system, or a mixed system of ward and at-large board seats.
Ward seats could add more neighborhood diversity to the board, city activist Michael Farrell said Wednesday. In recent years, the board has been dominated by Churchland-area residents.
But the issue of how board members should be elected has sparked little debate citywide. In the late 1950s, Portsmouth residents voted to scrap their council ward system and adopt an at-large system. Many felt wards were divisive.
Today, the decision is crucial because it may affect how all city leaders are elected. If the Justice Department rejects the local preference for electing board members, it could call for the overhaul of the system.
Last fall, Portsmouth voters overwhelmingly approved the switch from an appointed to an elected School Board. Board members had been appointed at-large, but the council doesn't have to stick with that method. Five of nine board seats will be up for election May 7.
Last year, the Justice Department nudged Newport News to adopt ward voting districts for all elected officials. But earlier this month, it dropped its objections to Chesapeake's voting system, clearing the way for the first board election in December. The department had argued that Chesapeake's at-large system for council elections created a pattern of racially polarized voting.
Webb said the Chesapeake case didn't influence the council's decision.
Portsmouth's voting-age population is about 55 percent white and 44 percent black, 1990 Census records show. Portsmouth has nearly 104,000 residents.
Bernard Griffin Sr., a former School Board chairman, was the only council member who said the city should embrace a mixed system. Students would be best served by a racially diverse board with residents from various parts of the city, he said.
Carlton M. Carrington, president of the United Civic League of Cavalier Manor, previously had urged the council to support a plan allowing for some ward seats. A ward system could help black residents more easily elect black candidates if the city's racial makeup significantly changed or if voting rates among blacks plummeted, he said.
``But if you look at the recent tradition in Portsmouth, it hasn't been that bad,'' Carrington, who is black, said Wednesday. ``We once elected a (black) mayor at-large, and at one time we had a black majority on the council.
``It appears that it's not detrimental if Portsmouth voters get out'' to the polls.
KEYWORDS: ELECTIONS PORTSMOUTH SCHOOL BOARD PORTSMOUTH CITY COUNCIL by CNB