Free elections: Hopefuls jockey for Board seats
Free elections: Hopefuls jockey for Board seats
It was the first of elections, it was the last of elections. Charlottesville's first School Board election ever will also be its last May election, and then the voter-mandated process will move to November 2007.
City Council's lone Republican, Rob Schilling, has been calling for an elected School Board since he began running for Council. Appointed boards "have a shameful history," says Schilling, pointing to early 20th-century laws prohibiting elected boards as a way to keep African Americans from serving.
The city's elected Democrats resisted the switch, claiming elections would lessen School Board diversity. It took Schilling and Democrat Jeffrey Rossman's bipartisan efforts to get enough signatures for a referendum that found favor with 73 percent of voters last fall.
"I think it's great six people are running for three seats," says Schilling. That defies conventional wisdom that average folk would not seek seats on the School Board if they had to run for office.
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Full Stories List for April 27th, 2006 issue #0517
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