Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 14, 1993 TAG: 9307140386
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURA WILLIAMSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Elected school boards? Eddy Vinton District Supervisor Harry Nickens.
Independent selection committees? See Catawba District Supervisor Ed Kohinke.
And now, for those who are interested in letting the Board of Supervisors appoint the School Board, there's Windsor Hills Supervisor Lee Eddy.
Eddy joined the debate Tuesday, when he asked County Attorney Paul Mahoney to draft a resolution that would place his option on the November ballot if supervisors approved it. They've done so twice - in 1980 and 1988 - only to see it twice defeated.
Eddy thinks it would have a better chance of passing now, since General Assembly approval of the elected school board option generated so much voter interest. Last year, 42 localities placed the elected-school board option on their ballots and every one of them approved it.
"I'm doing this now to give people another choice," he said.
To get the referendum on the November ballot, supervisors must hold a public hearing and then approve the resolution by a majority vote, Mahoney said. They would have to deliver the resolution to a Circuit Court judge by Aug. 4, which is 60 days prior to the election.
Meanwhile, Nickens and about a dozen supporters are trying to gather enough signatures by that date to place the elected-school board option on the ballot. So far, they are more than 3,000 signatures short.
Should they both succeed - and voters approve both methods - the county might find itself in a sticky situation.
"The question is, what happens if both pass," said Mahoney. "And I have no idea. I think a judge might have to make that determination."
Of course, both efforts could also fail, leaving the county with its current system - a judicially appointed selection committee whose only purpose is to appoint School Board members.
That would make School Board Chairman Frank Thomas happy.
"I feel that the way we're doing it is the best way," he said.
Roanoke County has been doing it this way for most of its history. The committee - mandated by state law - picked School Board members until the mid-1970s, when Roanoke County abolished its constitutional officers in favor of a county executive, Mahoney said.
Under state law, the new form of government dictated a new selection process, calling for the Board of Supervisors to appoint a School Board. But county voters tossed out the executive form of government a few years later, reinstating its old government and with it, its old selection process.
By that time, the state had passed a law allowing local governments to swap the committee process for board of supervisor appointments if voters approved the switch on a referendum. Supervisors placed the issue on the ballot twice but lost.
Nickens said he thinks voters now want more say in the matter and should have it through direct elections.
Kohinke says the system "ain't broke" and doesn't need fixing, a theme he's using to launch an anti-elected-School Board organization. He supports Eddy's entrance into the debate, however, because he hopes a three-way race will dilute support for Nickens and his followers.
Thomas said he doesn't think the public wants more involvement in the process. When the selection committee has held public hearings, he said, hardly anyone has shown up.
And then there's this option, from Hollins Supervisor Bob Johnson. To avoid potential confusion from two competing referendums, he offers a multiple-choice ballot question that would let voters pick one of the three methods.
Mahoney doesn't think that one's allowed under state law. But Johnson's not so easily deterred.
"We're going to run it by a judge," he said.
by CNB