
DATE: Wednesday, June 25, 1997              TAG: 9706250508

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   87 lines

BLACKS FAIL TO WIN MAJORITY ON NORFOLK SCHOOL BOARD THE CITY COUNCIL REAPPOINTS 4 TO NEW TERMS, PRESERVING A 4-3 WHITE MAJORITY.

A bid by African-American members of the City Council to name a black majority to the city's School Board fell short Tuesday.

The council granted new terms to the four current members up for reappointment, preserving the 4-3 white majority and dashing the hopes of black leaders for the city's first majority-black School Board.

Black leaders have been pushing for a larger share of political power in the city, and the School Board became a rallying point.

As the nation wrestles with ways to heal the wounds of past racial strife, local blacks said appointing a majority-black School Board would send a symbolic message that their voices count.

More than 60 percent of Norfolk's public schoolchildren are black.

``What we're really saying is that we have qualified people and why is it that all these years the scale remains unbalanced,'' said Leonard Parker, president of Norfolk's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People who attended Tuesday's meeting. ``When you ask the question, yes, it's divisive, but you shouldn't have to ask the question.''

But Jenny Cavender, a West Ghent resident who attends most School Board meetings, said, ``Race should not be the issue. Education should be the issue.''

She added: ``In my opinion, it doesn't matter if there are seven white members or seven black members. I just want the best people to represent the interests of our children.''

Mayor Paul D. Fraim said he saw no reason to change the makeup of the current board, because it appears to be headed in the proper direction.

``The sense is that this School Board has moved the system ahead considerably,'' Fraim said.

Since 1993, when Superintendent Roy D. Nichols was hired, the School Board members appointed by the council have become increasingly aggressive about improving student performance, with an eye toward boosting the achievement of black and low-income students and holding schools accountable for results.

In the past year, for example, the board has heaped resources into elementary school reading programs, beefed up academic requirements for student athletes and adopted a ``quality schools'' initiative that sets targets for raising student achievement.

The public seems content. A recent survey of 300 Norfolk adults conducted by a local research company for the school system found a clear majority satisfied with the content and quality of instruction in the schools. A majority of respondents was dissatisfied only with discipline and with the amount of money the city provides the school system.

On the question of whether a black majority board should be considered by council in the future, Fraim said: ``The fact that the minority community makes up such a large part of the student population certainly gives them standing to raise the issue, and it argues for a deeper discussion.''

Council member G. Conoly Phillips said recently that council had an informal policy of selecting a School Board with the same racial makeup as council.

During a 90-minute, closed session to discuss the appointments, Fraim said council members ``had a very healthy discussion about race and the sharing of power. I came out of there feeling the council had actually come closer together over this issue, and not farther apart.''

The council made the unusual decision to vote individually on each of the seven School Board nominees. In past years, the council has settled on the nominees in private and then voted for them in a bloc, a move to show unanimous support toward the selected board members.

Councilman Paul R. Riddick said black members of council pushed for the individual vote so they could demonstrate their wishes.

``What it showed is that African-American members of council believed it was time to move forward,'' Riddick said.

Reappointed were board chairman Ulysses Turner and Anna G. Dodson, both black, and Joseph T. Waldo and James R. Herndon, both white.

The black members of council had hoped to seat Kenneth C. Alexander, a black funeral home operator and civic activist. He received votes from the council's three black members.

But the vote for Alexander came after the council had cast ballots for the four incumbents.

Black Councilman Herbert M. Collins Sr. voiced disappointment.

``We still have to do a lot more working,'' Collins said of the black community. ILLUSTRATION: SOME VIEWS

Some black leaders have said that appointing a majority-black

School Board would send a powerful symbolic message to black people

that their voices count.

Mayor Paul D. Fraim says he sees no reason to change the makeup

of the School Board, because it appears to be running the system

well. KEYWORDS: NORFOLK SCHOOL BOARD NORFOLK SCHOOLS