Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 7, 1992 TAG: 9201070076
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NEAL THOMPSON EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
STATUS QUO JUST FINE WITH SCHOOL BOARDS
Most school board members in Roanoke and Roanoke County probably would not run in an election to retain their seats if Virginia switched to a system of elected instead of appointed school boards.Yet that switch is a very real possibility.
The General Assembly that begins its session Wednesday will make history if it passes a law to give localities the option to hold elections to fill their school boards. Virginia is the only state that doesn't have some type of system of board elections.
Roanoke-area board members say that's OK.
"Just because the state of Virginia is the only state without elected school boards doesn't necessarily mean it's the right thing," said Roanoke County School Board Chairman Frank Thomas. "I think the system that we have works very well."
But supporters of the switch say they have yielded some ground in their fight, which they think will help them get what they want.
Supporters backed off on demanding taxing power for school boards. The Virginia Education Association and state Parent-Teacher Association long have fought for elected boards with the authority to raise taxes. After such a bill was defeated last year, those groups told legislators they would accept a bill for elected boards without taxing power.
"After last year, we decided if we can't have the whole loaf, we'll take half," said VEA president Rob Jones.
Roanoke County board member Charlsie Pafford said taxing power is the only benefit of an elected board. "I would think that if you're elected, you would need taxing authority. Why else would you campaign?" Pafford said.
But legislators say that backing off on taxing power may have done the trick.
"This is the year to see elected school boards in Virginia," said Del. David Brickley, D-Woodbridge, who has sought the change since 1974.
Del. Joan Munford, D-Blacksburg, again will support a bill for elected boards and thinks it has a good chance for approval this year. But she also supports giving boards taxing power.
The VEA's Jones hopes to win approval for elected boards this year and push for taxing power next year.
November's elections helped the matter, with challengers around the state unseating incumbents in part on the school-board issue. Incumbents who sweated close races got a strong message from voters that the mood is right for elected boards.
That appears to be the case in the Roanoke Valley. A poll conducted by Roanoke College's Center for Community Research shows that 67 percent of the of the 400 people polled supported school board elections whereas 25 percent wanted to retain the current system. (That same poll found, however, that 94 did not want to give school boards taxing power.)
Only the Virginia School Boards Association persists in openly opposing elections.
None of the five current board members in Roanoke County, or the seven in Roanoke, supports the switch to elected boards.
The main problems with schools are financial, said Roanoke board member James Turner, "and elected school boards are not going to address that," especially without taxing power.
Roanoke board Chairman Finn Pincus said elections breed politicking. "I don't think school board concerns are Democrat and Republican questions. I think they're education questions," he said.
Roanoke County board member Paul Black said elections would attract a different type of school board member - more politically motivated and more susceptible to corruption. "I think it would deteriorate the quality of the people we've got on the school board. I see all kinds of problems with elected school boards," he said.
Roanoke board member Tom Orr said that if politics becomes part of the process, you get people looking to further themselves and not the system: "Look at our governor."
VEA's Jones countered: "I'm not so sure it could be any more politicized than it is."
Roanoke board member Wendy O'Neil said it would be "somewhat discriminating" because only those able to afford campaigns could run. If she had had to run for an election instead of seeking appointment last year, O'Neil said, "I wouldn't have been financially able to do it."
Elections also could eliminate the needed diversity of a school board. "We might have an all-white, all-male School Board," she said.