Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 8, 1995 TAG: 9506080044
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Many Western Virginia voters will elect School Board members for the first time this fall, but some voters probably won't have a choice on the ballot.
With the filing deadline just five days away, contests are assured on only seven of 41 ballots for school board seats in a nine-county region from Bedford County to Giles County.
No candidates have filed for 11 seats, but voter registrars said they expect at least one candidate for most of them by Tuesday's deadline, particularly in Franklin and Montgomery counties.
Twenty-three candidates have no opposition, though that could change by Tuesday.
"You hear a lot of complaints about schools, but no one seems willing to get in there and do the work," said Registrar Mary Weeks in Floyd County.
When a referendum to approve the switch to elected school boards was held two years ago, "All you heard was, `Get it on the ballot, get it on the ballot, get it on the ballot,'''said Freddie Williams, Giles County's registrar. "Now you don't hear much about it. It has been extremely quiet in the past few months."
Weeks said there doesn't seem to be quite so much interest in running when candidates realize they have to work for it.
In Giles, all four candidates are incumbents. No challengers have emerged.
In Craig and Pulaski counties, most candidates also are incumbents.
The situation is reversed in Roanoke County, where two veteran board members decided not to run, saying they didn't have the time to run a campaign. Four newcomers are running for the two Roanoke County seats on the ballot in November.Frank Thomas, chairman of Roanoke County's board for a decade and a member for 12 years, surprised school officials with his decision not to run.
Thomas, who did not favor the change to an elected board, said he couldn't find the time to campaign while performing his board duties and doing his job as vice president of an excavation company.
Maurice "Buck" Mitchell, a member of the Roanoke County board for six years, also decided not to run.
"I just don't have the time to campaign, raise money and do the other things you have to do to run for office," Mitchell said.
Unlike other counties in the region, Roanoke County will have its second board election in November after having elected three members last fall. Only one of three incumbents ran last year.
Only 18 of 41 incumbents in the nine-county region have filed to keep their seats.
In Franklin County, two incumbents are among four candidates who had filed by Tuesday for eight seats, the most up for election in the region. Registrar Peggy Allman expects more candidates by the deadline. "Some are working on the petitions, and maybe we'll get some for the other districts," she said.
Only two candidates have filed for four seats in Montgomery County, but others have announced and are expected to submit petitions.
In Bedford County, there is no candidate in one district and only one in another, but Registrar Marie Batten said others will enter the race.
Bedford County is one locality where there will be at least two contested races - and where some incumbents will be challenged.
In District 7 in central Bedford County, the underlying issues in the switch to an elected board are apparent in the race between Ben Shrader, the incumbent, and Stan Butler, vice president and treasurer of Piedmont Label Co.
Shrader, a nine-year board veteran, was reluctant to run because he is not enthused about having to campaign. If he had not been on the board, he said, he would not have run.
Butler, however, looks forward to the campaign, because he favors elected school boards. He said he believes that anyone who supports an elected board should be willing to become a candidate.Butler has an interest in schools. His wife teaches at Staunton River Middle School. He has three children in Bedford County schools and another will enroll soon.
Butler said that Shrader is a fine gentleman and he won't attack him. But
He also believes that school boards need to be more responsive to residents. "Now, they don't have to answer to anyone," he said.
To run, a candidate needs to collect the signatures of 125 registered voters. State law does not allow political parties to nominate school board candidates, and some election officials believe that's one reason candidates are scarce.
The General Assembly barred political parties from the nomination process because legislators said they wanted to keep politics out of schools.
The newness of school board elections also is cited as another reason for the dearth of candidates.
"Localities are not used to this process. So many counties came out of the block fast on elected school boards, with local groups organizing petition drives to get it on the ballot," said David Blount, governmental relations officer for the Virginia School Boards Association. "But many groups have not followed through to the next step and help find good candidates."
Western Virginia is not the only place where candidates are scarce, Blount said.
"I don't know that there is a pattern or trend," he said. "In some districts in a county there are several candidates, with only one in others."
Rob Jones, president of the Virginia Education Association, a teachers' organization that supported the switch to elected boards, said there seem to be plenty of candidates in the Richmond area.
"But I've gotten some calls from rural areas asking what happens if there are no candidates for some seats," he said.
According to Blount, the seats might remain vacant until the next election. Blount, who works with the state legislature on school board issues, said the question apparently was not addressed in the legislation authorizing elected school boards.
There is a provision in the law that authorizes circuit judges to fill vacancies in board seats that are created by resignations and deaths, he said, but it does not appear to deal with cases when no one has been elected.
"There is no clear direction on that, but the attorney general is researching it at the request of a school board," Blount said.
To help potential candidates learn more about the process, the school boards organization has prepared and distributed a guide on becoming a candidate and a packet of information on candidate forums.
The procedure for becoming a candidate is relatively simple, but time is running out.
People interested in running should call the state Board of Elections at (800) 552-9745 to get copies of the petitions and other necessary forms.
by CNB