THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 29, 1996 TAG: 9602290272
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALETA PAYNE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
What if you held a school board election and almost nobody ran?
In the four South Hampton Roads cities with school board elections May 7, eight people have filed to run for 19 seats. The deadline to file is 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Many others have picked up the necessary paperwork to become candidates and are collecting signatures on petitions, but it is unclear how many will run.
In Virginia Beach, the pace has been much slower than two years ago, when 24 people filed for six seats, according to voter registrar Marlene Hager.
``We don't have a lot of time left. March 5 is coming quickly,'' Hager said. ``Perhaps everyone is waiting for the last minute to file.''
Filings to run for city councils throughout the region also have been slow.
By late Wednesday, Dr. Elizabeth Daniels, a dentist and former dental school teacher, was the only candidate who had filed to run in Portsmouth's first board election. But at least two incumbents are circulating petitions and have said they will run. Five seats are up for grabs.
Portsmouth School Board Chairman J. Thomas Benn III, whose term expires this year, recently said he would run for the City Council.
In Chesapeake, two people have filed with four seats available. In Suffolk, two people have filed for three seats.
In Virginia Beach, three people have filed, two in the last week.
Four borough seats and three at-large seats are up for election. Frankland P. Babonis has filed to run for the Princess Anne Borough seat. Babonis, 44, is owner of F and M Environmental Technology Inc., a Virginia Beach-based company that trains people to work with hazardous materials.
Dr. James Polk has filed to run for an at-large seat. Polk, 38, is a neuropsychologist in practice in Virginia Beach.
On Tuesday night, City Councilman John A. Baum nominated Delceno C. Miles to the Blackwater Borough seat left vacant by the resignation of Susan L. Creamer, one of the four remaining board members appointed by the City Council. By law, the council cannot fill a school board appointment without a public hearing, so Miles would not be officially named until March 19 at the earliest. Miles, 35, has not filed to run for election but said she will do so.
She owns a marketing and public relations firm in Virginia Beach, and is a candidate to head the Virginia Beach Republican City Committee.
Three incumbents on the Beach board remain undecided. Two incumbents up for election resigned from the board in the last month and two others have said they will not run.
It was not immediately clear what would happen if enough people did not file to fill all the vacant seats. In Virginia Beach, circuit judges have appointed board members to the two elected seats that became vacant. Miles will be appointed by the City Council to the Blackwater seat because Creamer was originally appointed by the council, but will have to run almost immediately because that seat is scheduled to be filled by election this year.
Information packets that include the necessary forms and petitions to run in school board, city council and mayoral races can be obtained by calling the state board of elections at 1 (800) 552-9745.
Hager, the Beach registrar, said she has packets on hand for those who need them quickly. MEMO: Vanee Vines, Denise Watson and Karen Weintraub contributed to this
report.
KEYWORDS: SCHOOL BOARD ELECTIONS by CNB