Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 21, 1994 TAG: 9410210031
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Long
For the community at large, subjected to daily bombardments from the camps of U.S. Senate candidates, the referendum question is a nonissue that seems destined to pass because - as School Board member Chip Craig put it - "it's easy to vote for democracy."
Another current board member, Carter Effler, summed up the impressions of several community leaders: "I haven't heard a word," he said.
Kelly Morris, the woman who started the petition drive that put the issue on the ballot, suggests that's because the voters have already made up their minds.
"I think people have already decided whether or not they think this is a good idea," she said this week. Based on the ease she had collecting signatures last spring, she predicted approval. "Half the people were coming to me," she recalled.
If her instincts are correct, the city could have an entirely new School Board in a few years, because none of the current, appointed members of the all-white, all-male panel seems to have the stomach for the politics involved in running for office. Chris Strange, the School Board's newest member, says he agrees with elected boards and helped circulate the petition to get the issue on the ballot.
"I, for one, would not run," said Craig, who has spoken out against elected boards for more than two years. "If voters thought through the issue, they'd realize there are a lot of pitfalls." Instead, he said, voters are focusing on the U.S. Senate race. Danville voters turned down direct election of school board members when it was the only question on the ballot, Craig pointed out.
If the issue passes, the first School Board election would be in May 1996, concurrent with the next election for City Council members. School Board elections would be nonpartisan, and, like City Council members, board members would serve four-year, staggered terms. Even though the council members run at-large in Radford, City Council can designate districts for School Board members.
School Board Chairman Guy Gentry - who also predicts voters will approve the issue as they have in Pulaski and Montgomery counties - said the appointive process "has worked and worked effectively. It has been open to all." He and others fear that electing a School Board will politicize the process and close the door to some candidates, especially from the city's small, but close-knit, black community. "That's a very active community in Radford that needs a voice," he said.
Under the appointive system, several blacks and women have served on the School Board in past years, although last spring, City Council passed over Patricia Palmer - the last black to seek a seat - in favor of incumbent George Ducker. Ducker said this week that he fears an elective system could hurt minorities. "I would hate to see Radford go with elective school boards," he said.
Many in the black community seem to agree.
To the Rev. Lyle Morton of New Mount Olive Baptist Church, the issue poses a democratic dilemma: Popular election is at the core of democracy, but black candidates might not fare as well at the polls as they have under the appointive system.
"Which would serve us better?" he asked. Not having a black board member is "like having someone else to plan your menu and feed you too," he said.
Former City Councilman Roy Claytor said he has not heard "any discussion in the black community at all, even in the city of Radford" about the issue. "I just don't see any advantage in it," he said.
Said retired postal worker Jim Hickman: "Nobody's even much concerned about it, but I don't really go along with elected School Board because we won't be represented as we should be."
Hickman suggested that an elective system will result in seats going to those who spend the most during the campaign, not the best candidates.
Another sore point for Craig and others is that an elected board still would lack taxing authority. Someone running for election "can promise the world," he said, but without taxing authority, an elected board has little accountability to the voters. Effler said he'd favor an elected School Board if taxing authority were part of the bargain.
The kinds of candidates that might surface in a more political, elective climate - including one-issue candidates and those with an ax to grind - pose another concern. Ducker said he thinks an elective system "does nothing but politicize the office and takes away from [the board's] representative nature.
Guy Wohlford, a School Board member who also has served on City Council, also worried about turning control over to "the 30 percent or so" of the electorate that typically shows up to vote.
The city's teachers have not jumped into the debate either. Radford Education Association President Betty Whitley said the group has not taken an official position on the question. However, she predicted her association would be more active in campaigns if voters approve the referendum.
Superintendent of Schools Michael Wright - who is hired by the School Board - was understandibly reluctant to comment on how his future bosses might be picked. "Why don't you let me think on that?" he suggested.
by CNB