"When 73 percent of Charlottesvillians who voted cast their ballot for an elected school board on November 8, supporters of the referendum declared it a bipartisan victory. Last week, however, an unusually contentious row between two City Councilors suggested that the issue of an elected school board remains fraught with political tension.

On Monday, November 21, Council took up the issue during its regular meeting, three weeks after the overwhelming vote to change Charlottesville’s school board from an appointed to an elected body. Now the City must decide whether those elections should be conducted by wards, at-large or some combination of the two. Council held a public hearing on the issue during last week’s meeting.

Both Democrats and Republicans had a hand in fueling partisan rivalries.

On Sunday, Sherry Kraft, co-chair of the City Democratic Party, circulated an e-mail to Charlottesville Democrats bearing the title “Rallying The Troops.” Kraft wrote, “There is concern that Republicans may be organizing a large turnout to advocate for a ward system, with the ultimate goal of changing to a ward system for City Council elections.” Many Dems suspect that the local GOP wants to hold Council elections by ward so that a Republican-friendly ward could be carved out to help break the Democratic dominance on City Council. A school board elected by wards is the first step in that plan, some Dems allege.

The next day, however, Kraft sent another message: “We certainly do not intend to disparage people of either political party who, in good faith, hold varying opinions on this issue.”

Councilor Rob Schilling, first elected in 2000 as the Council’s lone Republican, made an elected school board one of his campaign promises then. Last year, in the wake of widespread discontent over the school board’s handling of controversial superintendent Scottie Griffin, UVA history prof Jeffery Rossman joined forces with Schilling to get a referendum for an elected school board on the November ballot.

Throughout the campaign for an elected school board, both Rossman and Schilling dismissed conspiracy theories about a Republican agenda, and suggested that the school board issue was one of “the public” versus “the elite.” Going even further, both Rossman and Schilling have insinuated that Charlottesville’s appointed school board was tied to Virginia’s Jim Crow history. Schilling has been quoted as saying that appointed school boards have a “sordid and shameful history,” while Rossman has been quoted saying the recent referendum “is the last nail in the coffin of traditional southern Democratic Party paternalism here in Charlottesville.”

While there was no organized opposition to Rossman and Schilling, Council Democrats were heard throughout the campaign to say that Charlottesville’s appointed school board helps ensure racial diversity. Currently two African-Americans sit on the board.

Interviewed by C-VILLE, Rossman now says he “wasn’t trying to associate our appointed school board with school boards 80 years ago.” Schilling, meanwhile, said during Monday’s meeting that “it is important to be aware of the shameful history of appointed school boards, in general, in Virginia.”

On Monday, self-described “peacemaker” Kendra Hamilton, a rookie Councilor, took off the gloves. Accusing Schilling of playing “the politics of fear” and attempting to “defame Council,” Hamilton said, “When [Schilling] casts himself as the only Councilor who cares about the black community, I have to question his purposes. I never thought that I, as a black woman, would be reduced to explaining to a bunch of white people that I know what I’m talking about.”

An argument between Schilling and Hamilton ensued as Mayor David Brown banged his gavel and vainly shouted for order. After all the fireworks, Council voted 4-1 to hold at-large school board elections in May, and continue seeking public comment on whether to carve Charlottesville into wards." (John Borgmeyer, C-VILLE Weekly, November 29, 2005)