THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 20, 1994 TAG: 9411180132
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: BRIAN ``KEITH'' NANCE
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
The editorial (Currents, Nov. 13) concerning elected school boards deserves to be addressed in depth. I realize that editorials are placed in the newspaper to provoke thought and discussion in the community. The prospect of an elected school board in 1996 is unnerving to some. Imagine what parents and taxpayers have been through in the past four years.
I will be the first to admit that the current School Board is head and shoulders above the boards of the recent past. I am quite impressed with the amount of discussion that takes place in public, and the board's willingness to break with formality and ask those assembled at their meetings about their feelings and knowledge of the school system. But, I must remind you that this board has three seats up for rotation each July. I find this prospect constantly unnerving. I will attempt to present a portion of the overall picture that led to the mandate that the entire city delivered Nov. 8 to elect our School Board.
Citizens of our city were first led down the primrose path when they were encouraged by the superintendent of schools to lobby City Council for $10 million in capital improvement money. The School Board and superintendent, in presenting the facilities plan in ``concept'' to support their need for money, deceived council.
No sooner was the ink dry on the CIP appropriation when a sleight of hand occurred and a different facilities plan was adopted. This ``new'' facilities plan accelerated the closure of two high schools by as much as a decade. Thus began the citizens' displeasure with our school system. What the citizens found when they went to the board during the CIP process was a group of people who lacked compassion and interest in the community's sacrifice.
Then the greatest lack of compassion occurred in the rezoning of the high schools and the enactment of the race-and-space concept. Race-and-space was a wonderful concept for our city in that it was non-discriminatory because it discriminated against all those disenfranchised by rezoning. In hindsight, this all came about to facilitate the federal magnet program grant.
The application process for this grant was interesting. When the superintendent and board began to present this grant as the cure for all that was wrong, they found an apprehensive public. The travesty that occurred was that the board and administration had a different presentation in each ethnic community. I attended most of these presentations and the differences were blatant.
The public was just plain tired of the irresponsible actions of boards past. Past boards just thumbed their noses at the public.
. . . Appointed school boards answer to no one unless they choose. It is my sincere hope that elected school boards are a move toward more accountable and responsible government. Private schools in Portsmouth have been forced to expand and establish waiting lists. We need to stop the mass exodus of middle-class families from our city and students from our schools. Enrollment declines have approached 1,000 in four years, with more than 500 students lost in one year alone.
Are elected school boards the answer to all our problems? Probably not. But, it is a good start. . . . Maybe, our first elected board will mirror the feelings of the community as a whole and make a difference in the education of our future. MEMO: Mr. Nance is a leader of Portsmouth Citizens for Better Education Inc.,
which led the petition drive for the elected school board referendum.
KEYWORDS: PORTSMOUTH SCHOOL BOARD
by CNB