Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 9, 1993 TAG: 9306090156
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Lynn Linkous of Christiansburg said she must submit the petitions by July 1 to county Registrar Sandra Chapin to give her time to certify that all of the signers are registered voters. Supporters must obtain 2,928 signatures - representing 10 percent of the county's voters.
The deadline to present the petition to the Circuit Court is Aug. 4, but the process of verifying voters' names will take about a month, said Linkous.
Linkous is one of the organizers of the drive along with her husband, Danny, and five other couples.
Elected-school board supporters have already succeeded in getting the measure on the Floyd County ballot this fall.
Referendums for elected-school boards were allowed for the first time in November. Those referendums were approved by voters in all 33 counties and nine cities where they were held, including in nearby Pulaski, Craig and Bland counties.
Currently, members of the Montgomery County School Board are appointed by the Board of Supervisors.
When Linkous began the drive last winter, she said she hoped to collect at least 4,500 names to ensure that enough of them were registered voters.
Referendum supporters reached nearly half their goal by February, within a month of starting the drive. Revonda Walters of Shawsville collected over 1,000 names by herself, Linkous said.
Collections have slowed since then, however. Linkous said she has had several people call her in the past two weeks saying they had collected names but those people have yet to turn them in.
The petition drive was an outgrowth of the public debate over whether the county school system should return to traditional Christian names for school holidays, Christmas and Easter. The School Board decided in April to keep the names as "winter" and "spring" break.
"We're not being heard," Linkous said after that vote. "It's time we vote for these people; it's time they answer to us."
If supporters of an elected school board don't get enough names on their petition this year, they'll try again next year, Linkous said.
"We're not going to quit until we get it."
Linkous asked that anyone who has not turned in petitions to mail them to her at 1120 Barringer Mountain Road, Christiansburg, Va. 24073.
by CNB