THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 8, 1994 TAG: 9411080352
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: EASTVILLE LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
Seven of Northampton's eight School Board members were appointed illegally, county Administrator Tom Harris said Monday night, but county leaders didn't know they were breaking the law.
The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to hold public hearings Dec. 12 to appoint a new School Board, and it named the current members as nominees.
But African Americans who jammed the county courthouse Monday wanted more answers.
The Rev. Anthony Lee Ruffin, pastor of a local church, demanded an investigation of county hiring practices. He said that if discrimination in hiring was proved, those responsible should resign.
``Ignorance of the law is no excuse,'' Ruffin said.
Other speakers said there appeared to be only one black employee in the county office complex.
``It's a grave dishonor,'' said the Rev. Kelvin Jones of the First Baptist Church in Capeville. ``I hope, and it is our concern, that this board would see to it that there is equal representation on the new School Board.''
Tempers flared in Northampton a month ago after the supervisors appointed Jo Anne Martin, who has children in an overwhelmingly white private school, to the School Board. She had not submitted an application or been interviewed.
Many parents believed that Martin could not be dedicated to a school system she had rejected. And her appointment left only two blacks on the eight-member board - in a county that is nearly 50 percent black.
Earlier, Ruth Wise, an African American, also had been appointed to the School Board without having submitted an application or been interviewed.
About two weeks ago, Harris said that research by county staff members had unearthed a problem with all the School Board appointments since 1987. The county held public hearings for each appointment, he said, but never mentioned the nominees by name. State law requires school board nominees to be named and discussed at a public hearing.
Dr. William Bernart is the only current member who was found to have been appointed legally.
At Monday's meeting of the Board of Supervisors, Jane Cabarrus, president of the local NAACP, indicated that the county's efforts to fix the problem were not internally driven, as Harris had insisted. Cabarrus said somebody ``leaked'' information about an NAACP investigation into the School Board appointments.
``I wonder what would have happened if we had not discovered that you had not followed the code,'' Cabarrus said about the illegal School Board appointments. ``Would we still be ignored? I think we smoked you out.''
Vic Schmidt, with Citizens for a Better Eastern Shore, said he wanted more facts about how School Board members are picked.
``What criteria does the board use to judge a nominee's qualifications?'' he asked.
KEYWORDS: NORTHAMPTON SCHOOL BOARD APPOINTMENT by CNB