RD2 - Report of the Subcommittee Studying Elected School Boards and Fiscal Independence of School Districts

  • Published: 1989
  • Author: House Privileges and Elections Committee
  • Enabling Authority: Letter request of the Speaker of the House of Delegates

Executive Summary:
This Subcommittee was appointed by the Chairman of the House Committee on Privileges and Elections in response to the request of the Speaker of the House that the Committee give consideration to the issues raised during the 1988 Session in House Joint Resolution Number 126. See Appendix A. That Resolution called for a study of

"the constitutional and practical implications of altering the method of selecting school boards, changing the relationships among the electorate, the local governing bodies, and the school boards, and re-designating who should have fiscal responsibilities for budgeting, taxing and borrowing to operate the public schools."

The premise of the Resolution is that an evaluation of whether school boards should be elected or appointed "clearly encompasses the more far-reaching issue of whether school boards should have fiscal independence and responsibilities."

The Subcommittee was appointed by Ford C. Quillen and met first on August 2, 1988. At that meeting Delegate Quillen was elected Chairman and Delegate C. Jefferson Stafford, patron of House Joint Resolution Number 126, was elected Vice-Chairman. Delegates V. Earl Dickinson, S. Wallace Stieffen, and John C. Watkins also served on the Subcommittee. Delegates Quillen and Watkins had served on the 1984 Subcommittee which reported to the full Committee on the pros and cons of electing school boards.

At its first meeting, the Subcommittee reviewed a staff background briefing paper on (i) selection methods and the fiscal status of school boards in the 50 states, (ii) Virginia constitutional and statutory provisions pertinent to changing the selection method and fiscal powers of the school boards, and (iii) an analysis of the fiscal impact, on a statewide basis, of shifting real property tax revenues to independent school divisions from the counties' and cities' general government budgets.

Next, the Subcommittee held a public hearing in Richmond on September 14, 1988, at which it sought opinions on the issue whether elected school boards should be given independent fiscal status. Those views are reported in the next section which summarizes the pros and cons on the issues examined by the Subcommittee.

This Report is a logical next step after the 1984 Report and responsive to House Joint Resolution No. 126. If focuses on the larger questions of whether an elected school board should have independent fiscal powers apart from the county or city and what is involved in giving independent fiscal powers to an elected school board.