George,

Our schools are struggling today under an absence of leadership. We've had four superintendents in five years. Three of the past four superintendent searches have ended in failure. Is there something wrong with Charlottesville or something wrong who is appointed--and reappointed--to serve on the School Board? As the current School Board collects resumes for its third superintendent search in the 21st century, consider that three Board members have failed twice at this essential job, one has failed once--and all four were reappointed to the Board. Would the voters have reelected this group?

Over the past decade we have seen a steep rise in the number of children receiving free or reduced cost lunches living in Charlottesville. Many of these children have struggled in school, and too many are not receiving an education. SOL scores are rising, but still we lose 100 kids--nearly a third of each class--from ninth to twelfth grade. Most are drop-outs. This week is report- card week: I heard from a school official that 500 kids at CHS received a F on their report cards. (That's nearly half the school.) Our schools need help. Our teachers need leaders who will survey best practices and select the programs best suited to address our needs, stick with them, and get the job done. And for that we need an effective school board.

Along with the illustrious list of school board members who've been appointed over the years (all of whom would likely have been elected) there's another list of illustrious people: those whom the City Council has declined to appoint. Karen Waters in the last round was just the latest on a long list. I know that city Democrats will continue to informally recruit and support diverse candidates for the School Board as they have under the appointed system; now other groups will have that same
opportunity: churches, neighborhood associations, the NAACP, PHAR, the CEA, and many others. I look forward to the day when someone on the City Council has School Board experience. Voting to elected the people who govern our schools makes sense. This way they will understand, as our city councillors do, that they represent all the people of Charlottesville.

Karl Ackerman (electronic mail, November 4, 2005)