Matthew Santoni, The Examiner
2008-04-09 07:00:00.0
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BALTIMORE -

Parents pledged to keep fighting for an elected school board in Harford even though their efforts failed in the General Assembly for a second straight year.

“I’m glad we were able to demonstrate some of the merits,” said Cindy Mumby, of Bel Air, who supports an elected board. “This issue will come back next year, and the year after that ... until we have the right to vote for our school board members.”

Opponents of an elected board also vowed to keep pressing their case in the nine months before the next session.

The latest bill would have phased in six elected members of the board by 2016 and retained three members appointed by the governor. The bill languished in a House committee Monday as the session closed.

Backers cited the support of most of the county’s parents, and former Board President Mark Wolkow admitted the board would be made an elected one if put to a general vote.

Wolkow said he hoped the time until the next session could be spent discussing proposals and reaching compromises.

“I think we can all agree that the current situation is not where we want to be,” Wolkow said.

But Deb Merlock, president of the Greater Edgewood Education Foundation, said the proposal to have one board member from each County Council district was flawed because the school districts didn’t match up. So parents could cast a vote for a board member and send their children to school in another member’s jurisdiction.

The school board has opposed election of members, saying an election could politicize education decisions. Members of the Harford County NAACP also opposed the elected board, saying residents might not elect minorities.

The Harford County Education Association, the local teachers union, remained neutral, said John Jones, HCEA president.

State lawmakers also rejected another bill that would have revived a group to interview candidates for the board and nominate them to the governor. That measure had been proposed as an alternative by Dels. Mary-Dulaney James and B. Dan Reilly.

Harford will have no organized means of recommending who will fill a slot on the school board when current President Tom Fidler steps down this summer.

“Effectively, we have no codified process,” said County Councilman Richard Slutzky, liaison to the board and a former teacher. “It will be a catch-as-catch-can scramble for interest groups and citizens to call the governor’s appointment secretary.”

msantoni@baltimoreexaminer.com