"Since at least September some concerned parents and city leaders have urged the Charlottesville City School Board to get its communication act together. Spurred by charges that shifts in standardized testing, reading programs and personnel were abrupt and poorly explained, as well as by rumored “gag orders” affecting school teachers and administrators, they cautioned the board about pending troubles if the public didn’t get a clearer sense of goals and processes. But by the time January rolled around and new Superintendent Scottie Griffin presented her $58 million budget — a top-heavy vision of local education with an unprecedented concentration of spending in Central Office — calls for improved communication turned to shouts. Following the first public forum to discuss the budget, parent Kathy Galvin, for instance, described the process as “perfunctory.” Ultimately, she later told the board, it “weakened my trust in local school governance.”

Now City officials are going a step further. Speaking publicly on the matter for the first time, Mayor David Brown puts the blame for the current crisis at the feet of School Board Chair Dede Smith. While crediting her commitment to the schools and calling her an “intelligent, caring person,” Brown all but tells C-VILLE that Smith should quit: “I don’t believe that the current School Board Chair has brought the leadership skills that the School Board needs this year in terms of being able to provide an open environment with full communication.” He adds that Smith is not effective to “lead the School Board in this difficult time.”

At the time he made these comments to C-VILLE, Brown said he had not conveyed them to Smith “directly.”

City Councilor Blake Caravati voices similar criticisms. “In September when there was a much lower level of controversy going on, it was clear to me and others that there were two big problems. There was a total lack of collaboration and communication on the part of the School Board…. Second, where’s the strategic plan for the budget?

“Neither of those have been satisfied,” Caravati says. “That falls directly on the leadership of the School Board.”

Councilor Kevin Lynch says that, in retrospect, he regrets that Council “didn’t insist” that the School Board draft a strategic plan ahead of budget season.

City Council appoints the seven-member board. Smith was first appointed in 2000. She was reappointed in 2003 and became chair on July 1, the same day Griffin started her job.

Smith says she can remain effective as chair because “I do in fact represent a solid group in the community.” Specifically, she says, “I’ve been a long-time supporter of children who struggle.”

But on the subject of managing communication across the school division, Smith offers no specifics on how she will involve the public in the next phase of change — drafting a strategic plan. “That will involve a lot of community input, and, you know, it’s a long process,” she says. “I’m hoping that will be a very positive step for a lot of people, because they will not only be able to see a vision but be part of it.”

Superintendent Griffin will present a revised version of her controversial budget to the School Board on Tuesday, February 15.

To the extent that they appointed Smith, Caravati says, Council is “culpable” in the current situation, too. “I don’t feel that bad about it,” he adds. “We ask questions, we’re very public about our selection process. It’s vetted to the public in general and the public in general didn’t respond, either.”

But public interest in the composition of the School Board could shift thanks to the current communication breakdown. Jeffrey Rossman, for one, hopes it will. The UVA history professor is spearheading a move to put a referendum on the November 8 ballot that could lead to school board elections in May 2006.

“It would be messy and you wouldn’t always get perfect School Board members,” he says, “but I think there would be a level of responsiveness, transparency and engagement that would overcome the flaws we’ve seen in the current appointed school board model.”

By law a petition for a referendum signed by 2,145 registered city voters must be filed by August 8 to get a referendum on the November ballot.

Until then, there’s another election of more pressing interest to Mayor Brown, namely a ballot among School Board members. “Ultimately, the School Board elects their leadership,” he says about the prospect of unseating Smith, “and it’s their role, not mine.”" (Cathy Harding, C-Ville Weekly, February 15, 2005)