Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 13, 1993 TAG: 9301130292
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
SALEM SCHOOL BOARD OKS LONG AS NEW CHAIRMAN
The Salem School Board approved an interim chairman Tuesday - the board's first shift in leadership in 12 years.June Long, who since 1983 had served as the board's vice chairman, assumed the chairmanship. Board member Walter Franke was voted interim vice chairman.
Both will serve until a formal board reorganization this summer.
Former board Chairman John I. Moore was up for reappointment last month, as was board member Glenn Thornhill. City Council reappointed Thornhill but chose to replace Moore with William Sinkler, principal of Roanoke's Lincoln Terrace Elementary School.
Sinkler is the board's first black member. His appointment was, in part, in response to the longtime urgings of residents who wanted minority representation on the board. His appointment also broke council's tradition of reappointing incumbents who wanted to serve again.
Moore said very little to reporters about council's decision not to reappoint him. But in a letter last month to the Salem Times-Register, he freely expressed his views.
"I certainly do not question the right or the authority of council to appoint any person they choose, and I strongly support council's stated policy of employing or appointing the `best qualified' person," Moore wrote.
"However, anytime there is pressure from a special interest group, the possibility exists that the `best qualified' policy may be less important than accommodating the special interest group.
"If that should occur, then the citizens of Salem would not be served as well as they should be."
Tuesday, Moore said he did not want to discuss the letter - or his views - any further.
"I felt I needed to say that and I said that," he said, referring to his letter. "It's exactly what I wanted to say."
Moore said he was surprised that council chose not to reappoint him to what would have been his seventh full term.
Emerson Gilmer, a Salem resident who has pushed for more minority representation on city boards and commissions since 1985, said Sinkler's appointment demonstrated that the "powers-that-be were ready to break away from the way things have gone on in Salem."
Gilmer took issue with Moore's assessment that council was "pressured" by a special-interest group.
"There was no pressure," Gilmer said. "There were only recommendations" from a biracial community committee of 18 Salem citizens appointed by City Council and headed by Cabell Brand, founder of Total Action Against Poverty, Gilmer said.
"The consensus of the biracial committee was that the old way of doing things had to be eradicated," Gilmer said, referring to a system that virtually assured incumbent School Board members' reappointment.