Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 11, 1995 TAG: 9511130026
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
If you want to pick the winners in the next Roanoke County School Board election, here's a tip: Select the candidates who win the support and financial contributions of the Roanoke County Education Association's political action committee.
Since the county switched to an elected board last year, all five winners have been backed by the teachers' PAC, which also donated $500 to each of their campaigns.
It is a trend that bothers Vern Jordahl and William "Bill" Brown Jr., two losing candidates in Tuesday's election.
"The teachers' union now owns the School Board. It will be totally responsive to them," said Jordahl, who lost in the Cave Spring District.
"It sounds like the fox will be watching the chicken house," said Brown, who lost in the Catawba District. "I have concerns about this."
Jordahl said the state law prohibiting political parties from nominating school board candidates has given enormous influence to teachers' political action committees.
"What has happened is that teachers have the only PAC in school board races and they have the power to swing elections," he said. "It creates a union monopoly."
But Kitty Boitnott, chairwoman of the teachers' PAC, said Jordahl's complaints are "just sour grapes, pure and simple" because he was beaten.
"I wish we were as powerful as some people seem to think," she said. "I think we are just in step with the parents and community at large."
Boitnott said the teachers have no hidden agenda and do not expect special favors because they have supported all five elected board members.
William Irvin III, the Cave Spring winner, said he's not a tool of the teachers' political action committee, but he appreciated its support.
"I will listen to the teachers, and I will listen to parents," he said. "But if parents disagree with teachers, I will probably go along with parents."
Marion Roark, the Catawba winner, also said Jordahl's complaints have no validity.
"The teachers know how independent I am. I am not a rubber stamp," Roark said. "But we will need the teachers' support for any changes that we make to improve education, because the classroom is where it will happen."
Jordahl claims the teachers' committee violated the nonpartisan spirit of school board elections. At some precincts, workers were distributing materials for Democrat John Edwards, the winner in the state Senate race, as well as Irvin, he said.
But Boitnott said that was done by only one poll worker, briefly, at one precinct, and she stopped it immediately when she learned about it.
"One of our workers had to leave, and another person handed out materials for Irvin and the Democrats a short period, but that was only temporary," she said.
Boitnott said she discovered that another poll worker for the teachers' organization was wearing a sticker for Edwards, but she told her to take it off.
Boitnott said the teachers' committee, which backed Democratic candidates for the General Assembly and Democrat Spike Harrison for the Board of Supervisors in the Catawba District, had two sets of poll workers.
"We are aware that school board races are supposed to be nonpartisan, and we honored that," she said. Boitnott said it is ironic that Jordahl, an ethics professor, now claims the board will be controlled by teachers, when he based his campaign on the need for an educator on the board.
Debbie McClure, a teacher and former president of the county teachers' organization, accused Jordahl's campaign of using partisan poll workers to distribute materials for him. She said Republican workers for state Sen. Brandon Bell distributed Jordahl flyers at several precincts.
"I dare [Jordahl] to make an issue of this. The Bell worker was asked to stop passing out Jordahl material, but she refused," McClure said.
Jordahl said his campaign could not control individual GOP poll workers who might have decided to distribute his materials. If that happened, he said, it was different from the poll workers for the teachers' organization, who he claimed were acting on behalf of a group.
A spokesman in the state Board of Elections said he doubts there is anything in the state law to prevent individuals from distributing materials for both school board candidates and partisan nominees for other offices. But no one was available Friday to provide a definitive answer, he said.
Jordahl also said some students were told they would get extra credit if they distributed campaign materials for Irvin. Boitnott said the students volunteered to distribute the materials and were not recruited by the teachers' organization. Other students got credit for distributing materials for Democratic and GOP candidates in other local and General Assembly races. She said some students also were distributing materials for Jordahl.
The election outcome apparently won't cause immediate changes in School Board policies affecting teachers or other issues.
Both Irvin and Roark said during the campaign that they favor higher salaries for teachers. But the School Board already has established a goal of raising salaries to the national average by the year 2000.
Irvin supports the recommendation for a new Cave Spring High School, although the School Board is expected to make a decision on the issue before the new members take office. Roark said she has not reached a conclusion on the Cave Spring proposal. But she agrees with some members of the Board of Supervisors that any bond issue for a new high school should include school projects in other areas of the county.
"If it is just a bond issue for a high school alone, I don't think it will pass," Roark said. "There has got to be other projects if the voters are going to approve it."
by CNB