A Wicomico County school board proposal

This is something for you to mull over, based on the promise I made on Wednesday’s post about the County Council meeting the previous night. This also extends a call for the elected school board I made in March of last year – unfortunately, the previous County Council didn’t act on that measure in time for November’s election.

As I understand it, the process can be completed as follows:

  1. County Council votes to put a non-binding referendum on the ballot at the next General Election. (This would be in 2012.)
  2. Assuming the referendum is passed by voters, legislation to allow the county to make the switch is passed by the Maryland General Assembly.
  3. The first elected school board members are selected at the next General Election in 2014.

I believe we could skip step one if our General Assembly delegation got the proper legislation passed, but it’s my understanding that Norm Conway wouldn’t move it without a referendum. (If I am mistaken, be patient and I’ll get to comments when I have a chance.) The other method to achieve step one would be via a petition to get a referendum on the ballot, which I have been told was tried in 2001.

But the devil is in the details, and it seems that County Council would like to have all of the parameters ironed out before passing along a proposal to voters. (Unfortunately, that may make it too complex and doom it to failure – I’d rather just have the concept presented first.) In that case, here are a few humble suggestions I’d like to make as a framework for an elected board. Obviously they would have all the responsibilities and duties that the current appointed board has.

  1. The Board should be a seven-member body (as it is now), with one representative from each County Council district (using the exact districts) and two at-large members. I think this addresses, at least in part, one concern of the NAACP. District representatives must be a resident of that district.
  2. Each member would serve a four-year term (with an exception as noted below). For any member, there would be a limit of three terms of service, whether consecutive or not. Current appointed members would be allowed to serve the full three terms if they choose to stand for election.
  3. Beginning with the 2014 election, members elected from districts would serve a four-year term and stand for re-election in 2018. The at-large representatives would serve a single two-year term, standing for election in 2016 before commencing on a four-year cycle. This way every two years the entire county votes on at least one school board member, whether representing their district or the county at-large.
  4. School board elections will be non-partisan, with no party identification on the ballot. Because of this, there would be no primary and the election winner would be determined by whomever has the most votes of all candidates, whether by majority or plurality. (This has its drawbacks, but also gives a so-called disenfranchised minority a better shot at winning.)
  5. In case there is a vacancy mid-term for any cause, it would be up to the County Council to vet and select a replacement to fill out the term within 60 days of the vacancy.
  6. State campaign finance rules in effect for elected school board officeseekers would apply.

There’s probably other language I need to make this a more complete proposal, but I think you get the idea.

I know the naysayers would tell me that the school board would be too politicized if elected, with one making the point that many of the nation’s worst school districts are saddled by elected boards. But who’s fault is that? And would it truly make any difference if the boards in these places were appointed by the same inept government that can’t run these cities properly?

What I know is that, in the situation we have currently, a governor we did not vote for makes the selections based on the recommendations of the appropriate partisan Central Committee – in many cases, our first choices have been denied for a number of reasons, even by Governor Ehrlich. (He’s the last governor we in Wicomico County actually voted in favor of; to find the previous example you’d have to go back to William Donald Schaefer in 1986.) To me, a person who came of age in a state where local districts are run by elected school boards – for better or worse, Ohioans in their hundreds of local school districts can exercise this accountability – it makes little sense. (Ohioans also get to vote on local operating and bond tax levies, which is a definite double-edged sword.)

I don’t advocate going quite that far here in Maryland, but I think we should join the vast majority of other counties in the state by letting the voters decide their school board.

Just so you know, my internet access will be limited over the next couple days so comment moderation will be spotty.