THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, July 29, 1994                  TAG: 9407280192
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON    PAGE: 06   EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Editorial 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   35 lines

SCHOOL BOARD TAKING THE HEAT

If you can't stand the heat, don't take the seat: School Board members publicly elected are publicly accountable - and should be publicly accessible. They don't get to choose who may appear before them or who hears what critics have to say. New member Elsie Barnes was right to suggest televising the monthly public comment and the board was right to approve. If, as opponents feared, school critics use the televised time for mindless school-bashing or misinformation, board members will have a prime time to set the record straight.

The School Board also took a step in the right direction by changing the time for public comment from 3:30 to 5:30, giving working folk more a chance to attend. But the later hour applies only to the third-Tuesday meeting in even-numbered months. That's fine if you figure that speakers who forget the schedule aren't worth hearing anyway. That's one way to sort them out. It's hardly the most encouraging way, particularly for a board whose elected members stressed parental involvement in schools.

Serving on the School Board is a time-consuming, often thankless task. School Board meetings often become marathons that do neither members nor their duties justice. The new board seems open to new and better ways. Great. But the workload didn't stop 25 people from vying for the School Board in May. It shouldn't stop those who serve from facing the feedback, either. by CNB