It took a little longer than expected but the companion bill to SB99, the bill which would give Wicomico County voters the opportunity to determine whether they want an elected school board, was introduced in the House yesterday. HB966 is the crossfiled version of the Senate bill.
Unlike last year, when the bills were introduced late in the session, not all of the Wicomico delegation is on board as sponsors. Last year’s SB981 had Senator Jim Mathias as lead sponsor with Senator Rich Colburn as co-sponsor; this time the order is reversed. Delegate Norm Conway was listed as lead sponsor of HB1324 in 2011; this year he’s not on the bill, nor is fellow Democrat Rudy Cane.
Instead, Delegate Mike McDermott is acting as lead sponsor, with co-sponsors Delegates Addie Eckardt, Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio, and Charles Otto. It wasn’t prefiled as he promised last year in front of the Wicomico County Republican Club, but I would presume he instead waited as long as he could to see if either local House Democrat would come on board. Alas, it was in vain, so he ended up introducing it on the last day before it would have been forced to jump through the additional hoop of the Rules Committee.
More troubling to me is the lack of progress on the Senate version. Originally slated to have a hearing on January 25, that was cancelled a week beforehand. A new hearing was scheduled for next week, but again scrubbed.
I think those who are interested need to put something on the to-do list for this coming week: contact the leaders of the Senate Education Health and Environmental Committee and House Ways and Means Committee and encourage them to get the bills moving.
- Senator Joan Carter Conway (Chair, EHE): (410) 841-3145
- Senator Roy P. Dyson (Vice-Chair, EHE): (410) 841-3673
- Delegate Sheila E. Hixson (Chair, W&M): (301) 858-3469
- Delegate Samuel I. Rosenberg (Vice-Chair, W&M): (410) 841-3297
Certainly it may be of assistance as well to coordinate our efforts with Republican members of these committees as well:
- Senator J.B. Jennings (EHE): (410) 841-3706
- Senator Edward R. Reilly (EHE): (410) 841-3568
- Senator Bryan W. Simonaire (EHE): (410) 841-3658
- Delegate Kathryn L. Afzali (W&M): (301) 858-3800
- Delegate Joseph C. Boteler III (W&M): (410) 841-3365
- Delegate Mark N. Fisher (W&M): (410) 841-3231
- Delegate Ron George (W&M): (410) 841-3439
- Delegate Glen Glass (W&M): (410) 841-3257
- Delegate LeRoy E. Myers, Jr. (W&M): (301) 858-3321
- Delegate Andrew A. Serafini (W&M): (301) 858-3447
There’s already going to be quite a bit on our electoral plate this year, but there’s always room for more. Hopefully in 2014 we can begin to turn over control of our school board from some unelected bureaucrat in Annapolis doing the bidding of the governor to those we select at the ballot box. As I envision it, we would have a school board which mirrors County Council (5 representing districts and 2 at-large) elected in a non-partisan election where everyone has a fair shot. It may not necessarily reflect this in the end, but the time for choosing needs to arrive soon.