"The Charlottesville School Board will have at least three new faces in December.

Vice Chairwoman Peggy Van Yahres, former Chairwoman Julie Gronlund and first-year board member Louis Bograd have announced that they will not seek re-election in November. Van Yahres and Gronlund together have more than 11 years of experience on the School Board.

Gronlund said she wants to devote more time to her two children, one a seventh-grader at Buford Middle and the other a fourth-grader at Venable Elementary.

“A person knows when it’s time to move on, and it’s time,” said Gronlund, who has served on the board for more than 6 years.

Van Yahres said that Superintendent Rosa S. Atkins and her administrative team have brought consistency to a division that has had four superintendents in her five years on the board.

“I feel like, ‘Get out when the going is good,’” she said.

Van Yahres also wants to dedicate more time to her business, Van Yahres Associates, which performs site design for college campuses.

Gronlund and Van Yahres both said that they have seen the pros and cons that the No Child Left Behind law has brought to the school division.

“It’s a mixed bag,” said Gronlund, describing the law. “It has put more of a focus on under-performing students, which is a positive. It has also put a lot of pressure on teachers, and I think some of the mandates are unreasonable.”

The accountability that the law has brought to teachers, principals and superintendents has helped education, Van Yahres said, although she said she thinks some of the testing requirements are unrealistic.

Chairman Alvin Edwards has declared that he will run for a seat on the board in the fall.

“I intend to run again because I believe strongly in the whole educational process,” said Edwards, who has served on the board for about two years after previously serving on the City Council for eight.

Edwards remains confident that despite the wealth of experience the board will be losing, capable replacements will emerge.

“When you have a challenge, the best way to deal with it is to work through it,” he said. “I believe some good people will step forward.”

Four of the seven city School Board seats will be up for election in November." (Matt Deegan, The Daily Progress, April 21, 2007)