Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 25, 1994 TAG: 9401250282
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
So far, Kelly Morris has just one signature on petitions calling for elected school board members in Radford: her own.
By Aug. 1, she hopes to add at least 599 others, which would put the question before city voters Nov. 8.
City Council now appoints School Board members. Both Pulaski and Montgomery counties have switched from appointed to elected boards.
``I think everyone should have the privilege of voting for them,'' said Morris, who picked up the petitions at the Circuit Court Clerk's office Friday morning.
``This will give us a little more of a voice.''
A mother of two preschool children, Morris said she has no particular ax to grind with the present board. She also insisted there's no connection between her desire for an elected school board and her husband's part-time coaching job in the Radford City Schools.
David ``Dink'' Morris coaches football and baseball. Kelly Morris said she and her husband supported the board's decision to drop Radford High School's athletic classification from AA to A.
``That was one positive thing they did,'' she said, but offered no examples of decisions she didn't like.
Guy Gentry, chairman of the six-member School Board, was philosophical about the drive and said he wasn't surprised to learn about it. ``It'll be up to the citizens to decide if City Council has been doing an adequate job [of appointing School Board members],'' he said.
Gentry suggested that elected school boards might discourage good candidates who would be put off by having to campaign. He said he also hopes elected boards would not lead to special-interest candidates.
School Board Vice Chairman Chip Craig has publicly expressed his opposition to elected boards.
Morris expects current School Board members will stand for election starting in 1996, if voters approve the referendum this fall.
She had wanted to mount a petition drive timed with last year's presidential election, she said, but ran out of time. This year, she said, she's had no shortage of offers to help out.
To put the question on the ballot, Morris needs to collect the signatures of 10 percent of the city's registered voters, which number around 5,400. ``I'm going to shoot for at least 600,'' she said.
Morris said she anticipates using a variety of ways to attract petition signers, including going door-to-door and leaving petitions in convenience stores and other high-traffic areas.
by CNB