THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 24, 1996 TAG: 9606240046
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 60 lines
City Council, the last in South Hampton Roads with the power to appoint its School Board, will name three members to the seven-member board Tuesday.
Compared with elections for school boards the past two years in neighboring cities - including Virginia Beach's wild ride in May with 43 candidates vying for seven seats - Norfolk's appointment process Tuesday appears tame.
But it's not without a political side.
The outcome will hinge on coalitions that council members form behind closed doors, and one councilman said there's a chance two School Board incumbents could be unseated.
At a City Council meeting last week, six people, including three incumbents, were nominated.
The incumbents seeking another two-year term are medical researh scientist Robert F. Williams and attorneys Junius P. Fulton III and Anita O. Poston.
The other three are retired banker Conrad A. Greif, retired city school teacher Alveta Green and physician Theresa W. Whibley.
Last year, black members of City Council pushed unsuccessfully to appoint a black majority to the School Board to reflect the district's student population, which is about 63 percent black. The board has a 4-3 white majority, the same as City Council.
The board's racial makeup has not become an issue this year.
Instead, Williams and Fulton may fall victim to ``backroom politics'' as council members jockey for their own nominees, said Vice Mayor Paul R. Riddick.
There may be enough votes to appoint Greif and Green to the incumbents' seats, Riddick said.
Councilman Randy Wright nominated Greif, who lives in the Ocean View section of the city, as does Williams. Councilman Herbert M. Collins Sr. nominated Green. Mayor Paul D. Fraim nominated Whibley.
Riddick said he favors staying with the incumbents. Williams, board vice chairman, has served four years, Fulton two years and Poston six.
``You really need to be on the board for two or three terms to really be effective,'' Riddick said. ``They're just getting their feet wet.''
Wright said Friday he couldn't predict the vote. Council members have not met as a group to discuss the appointments, Wright said, and will meet privately Tuesday before voting.
``I'm not trying to take any particular member off the board,'' Wright said. ``I'm just trying to get someone on there.''
Meanwhile, a group of Norfolk residents pushing for an elected School Board is circulating petitions to place the issue on the ballot - as soon as November if they can get the required number of signatures. Three previous efforts have failed.
The group, Citizens for Quality Education, needs the signatures of 10 percent of Norfolk's registered voters, about 8,400 people.
Since 1992, when the General Assembly gave cities the option of electing school boards, voters in three-quarters of Virginia's 133 school districts have approved elected boards. Every city in South Hampton Roads except Norfolk has held school board elections.
Riddick, who said he has reservations about an elected board, said: ``If persons on council allow this to be a political game . . . we might as well have an elected School Board.''
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK SCHOOL BOARD NORFOLK CITY COUNCIL by CNB