George,

I couldn't possibly agree more with Virginia Germino (re:appointed school boards), I would only take exception to her comment on "token salaries"; having spent three years and fifteen days on the Charlottesville School Board, I think my total remuneration was a few sandwiches and coffee for special luncheon meetings.

The hours were long, the tasks, difficult, but we managed to accomplish much - kindergarten classes were established; we started the first transportation system, ending the "get there any way you can" problem; we closed the McGuffey School, ending what was essentially the "warehousing" of children with handicaps and learning disabilities; we broke ground for the new high school; we initiated a student school board, involving the kids and getting their ideas and criticisms; and,among other accomplishments, we were the first school system in the Commonwealth of Virginia to unanimously vote to abolish corporal punishment (overturned by the Attorney General because it was state mandated,but later outlawed).

Members of the school board, at least the ones with whom I served, were dedicated to public education and improving the quality of education for the community we served.

Our agenda was just that and nothing more - there were no individuals with ideological dreams to transform our school system into their personal moral havens, no individuals who represented themselves as progressives only to disguise their "stealth" desires.

My problem with elected school boards is not based on opposition to the democratic process but on the knowledge that we now are in an age of wacky fundamentalism; individuals who will put their personal philosophy ahead of ethics and honesty, running on appealing concepts only seeking to be in position to impose their personal moral and religious beliefs on the unsuspecting community.

It is and has happened nationwide, and the threat is frightening!

Harry Tenney (electronic mail, November 3, 2005)