
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 25, 1995                   TAG: 9501260051
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD                                  LENGTH: Medium

CITY SCHOOL BOARD DROPPING TO 5; DUCKER'S SEAT WON'T BE FILLED

No one will fill the late Rev. George Ducker's seat on the School Board, City Council has agreed. The decision, made without a formal vote, follows a recommendation by City Attorney John "Bunny" Spiers and effectively reduces the board from six to five members.

Ducker, a Presbyterian minister, died in an automobile accident Dec. 4, and no one has requested appointment to complete his term, which runs out in May 1996.

Earlier this month, Spiers asked council to put off appointing someone to complete Ducker's unexpired term until he could determine the legal implications of the city's pending move to an elected school board. In November, the city's voters OK'd the change to an elected board by a wide margin.

Although council has the authority to name a new member, Spiers said Tuesday that he'll file plans with the U.S. Justice Department calling for a five-member board, elected at large. He discussed the move with council during an executive session Monday night, he said. Because of the history of past voter discrimination in Virginia, the Justice Department must approve any plans that affect how officials are elected in the commonwealth.

Spiers said Tuesday that under the elective system, the city has to comply with state law requiring both City Council and the School Board to have the same number of members, elected in the same manner and for identical terms. "I think we have to end up with five," he said.

The elective system will be phased in starting next year. Traditionally, City Council has appointed two School Board members from each of the city's three wards, holdovers from the neighborhood school era. But Spiers said appointment by wards was a policy decision and not a legal requirement.

"The city is one school district," he said, adding that five members should be sufficient to handle the school division's affairs.

Mayor Tom Starnes said council concurs with Spiers' recommendation and doesn't think the situation requires a vote.

The era of School Board appointments is not quite over, however. Council still gets to pick two School Board members for three-year terms to start July 1. Those seats now are filled by Carter Effler and John "Chip" Craig.

Voters would get to elect their first School Board member in 1996, two more in 1997 and another two in 1998, all to four-year terms.

by CNB