BAD BACK KILLS SCHOOL BOARD BILLS

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

DATE: SATURDAY, February 8, 1992                   TAG: 9202080336
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BY THOMAS BOYER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium
BAD BACK KILLS SCHOOL BOARD BILLS
The campaign for elected school boards in Virginia was stymied Friday by a bad back, but the close margin of defeat indicated this still could be the breakthrough year for the issue.
A key state Senate panel spiked several bills that would have permitted elected school boards, as the committee's chairman, expected to support the measure, missed the vote because of a back injury.
The issue remained alive, however, as the House of Delegates gave final approval to its own version of the legislation, 77-23, and sent it to the Senate.
Sen. Joseph Gartlan Jr., D-Fairfax County, chairman of the senate Privileges and Elections Committee, has been hospitalized with a disc problem all week.
In Gartlan's absence, the committee deadlocked 7-7 on a key procedural vote on several school board bills, effectively killing them until next year.
Seven of the eight remaining Democrats on the committee, including Madison Marye, D-Shawsville, voted to block action on bills that would have legalized elected school boards throughout the state. Voting not to kill the bills were one Democrat and the committee's six Republican members.
The Senate is traditionally loath to overrule a committee, but GOP lawmakers, who hold 18 seats in the 40-member Senate, believe they can find at least three Democrats to join them to win approval for the legislation.
Sen. Stanley Walker, D-Norfolk, a longtime opponent of elected school boards, said he would continue to fight. "To me it's a serious issue. I was a school board member under very trying times. I've just seen appointed boards work, and work well."
He acknowledged Friday's tie means that if Gartlan can recover in time for a vote on the House bill, the committee might pass it. "Since before I came up [in 1964] I kind of thought somehow or another an elected school board would come out of the assembly. But I just don't think it's the answer to all the problems."
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by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB