Getting There

I've been remiss in not noting the introduction into the House of Delegates HB 1373, another new school board bill. The bill introduced by Delegates Gilleland and McConkey, along with its companion Senate piece (SB915, introduced by Senator Greenip) is a much needed improvement over the disastrous HB24. However, HB1373/SB915 is not a complete answer to the calls of an elected school board. The bill has some interesting ideas, including a hybrid elected/appointed board that sees five elected members, two members appointed by the County Executive, and the student member.

My biggest concern with the current bill is that, while splitting the county into five districts for the purpose of elected Board members, candidates would run county wide. This means that voters from Pasadena would go to the polls to elect those who would represent Annapolis, and vice-versa. I'm not sure how we will get a board that represents the interests of the district the individual members represent if they have to secure votes countywide.

The bill also gives an option to vote for a slate of non-partisan candidates, or to give the option to allow the County Executive to appoint the member from that district, which strikes me as strange.

The bill is certain progress over the faux-elected school board bill introduced earlier. However, we still have a long way to go in getting there to a fully elected board.