People elected to their county school boards across West Virginia already have a list of on-the-record mandates to which they must abide.
Such as not pushing for family or friends seeking jobs in the system, as example.
Or not awarding district-related contracts to your own company, or company you’re invested in, as another.
That whole conflict of interest thing, and all.
However, what if those “family” and “friends” come in the form of your party affiliation?
What if your “company,” as it were, is that same party that put up the money so you could run as a Republican, or a Democrat or an Independent?
What if matters of party lines came up every time you had to consider new building construction or textbooks?
All that, is what has Barbara Parsons worried — as she currently considers House Joint Resolution 106.
Parsons served for nearly 20 years on the Monongalia County Board of Education, including a few stints as president of the body.
She and her colleagues discussed and voted on budgets, payroll, personnel, curricula, school closures, and school openings during her run.
Parsons also served for a time as president of the state School Board Association, helping those newly elected to their local boards in West Virginia’s 55 counties learn the language and the landscape of the public school system here.
The only time “politics” entered in, she said, was when she discussed her BOE philosophy and voting record during re-election time, or if the board hosted lawmakers for a roundtable or breakfast.
Rules of engagement
All that could change, though, if the aforementioned resolution, a proposed amendment to the state constitution, makes it through this year’s Legislative session for a vote.
The amendment would require all school board candidates to run with their party affiliation next to their name on the ballot.
Proponents say it’s a matter of transparency, in that the letter next to the name on the ballot might be a good indicator of how the candidate thinks — and how he might be inclined to vote.
Which might not be a bad thing in today’s divisive climate, as Aaron Churchill, a researcher with the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute mused last summer.
The institute is a think tank that watches all things education from its headquarters in Dayton, Ohio.
Writing this past August in a piece for the organization, Churchill was wondering if critics of the call to partisan school board elections — a measure that has been discussed in earnest from Florida to Wisconsin since the start of the pandemic — weren’t being naïve.
Or maybe even hypocritical.
After all, he said, COVID-19 added whole new, and heretofore unknown layers, to the discussion. In-person learning versus virtual.
Vaccines, opposed to those who would rather not roll up their sleeve.
To mask — or not to mask.
“Are nonpartisan elections really insulating public schools from divisive politics?” Churchill wrote.
“Or is it naïve to think that school boards are apolitical governing bodies? If indeed there are ideological differences about how to run schools and education children, shouldn’t the electorate get a hint about where candidates are likely to stand? Why keep it a secret?”
Parsons said it’s naïve to think a party wouldn’t try to yield influence on a vote or project it may want to advance.
An in-kind response might be expected, she said, if, say, the party had kicked in $1,000 for yard signs and flyers during a successful campaign.
“If you keep it nonpartisan, you keep it uncluttered,” she said. “If I had been forced to go with a party affiliation, I’m not sure I would have run at all.”
There are two other factors, Parsons said. The first is that children are nonpartisan. The second is that parties in power aren’t always that.
“You may, or may not, be acting in the best interest at the time,” she said.
‘No one knows your district better … ’
Mon Schools Superintendent Eddie Campbell Jr., meanwhile, said he’d rather not act at all.
He was referring to Senate Bill 227, which has since been kicked back to the Education Committee by state lawmakers.
The bill would give a measure of authority to county school superintendents of the boards of education they currently answer to — which Campbell said would be to the detriment of Monongalia County and West Virginia’s 54 other public districts.
“No one knows your district better than your local BOE,” he said. “They’re the ones who were elected by the community.”
Preston Superintendent Steve Wotring didn’t return calls in time for this report.
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