VIRGINIA BEACH — The Virginia Beach School Board plans to work with the General Assembly and may consult an outside lawyer to determine how to address a new local elections system that may put eight of the board’s 11 members in new districts with colleagues.
The Independent News first reported the dilemma in December before U.S. District Court Judge Raymond A. Jackson adopted revised maps prepared by a special master, creating a new system the court found would correct violations of the U.S. Voting Rights Act.
Plaintiffs Latasha Holloway and Georgia Allen successfully challenged Virginia Beach’s local voting system as discriminatory. The suit applied only to City Council, but it is expected to change School Board elections because they mirror council elections.
There are three instances of School Board incumbents paired with other incumbents in new districts. Eight of the 11 members are in districts with colleagues. One district seems to include four of them.
Jackson adopted a map that includes revisions from an earlier plan, but residences of School Board members were not part of the changes made by a special master. Those that were made address population issues raised by parties in the suit.
“We still have the issue with three districts with overlapping members,” School Board Chairperson Carolyn Rye, who now represents the Lynnhaven District, said on Thursday, Dec. 30.
She said the board will continue working with local members of the General Assembly to address how to proceed and may consult outside legal counsel. They also are engaging with the city, too.
Under the final plan approved by the court on Tuesday, Dec. 22, Rye is no longer paired in the same district with her colleague, Beverly Anderson, as she had been. However, Anderson, who holds an at-large seat, is now paired in a district with another board member, Sharon Felton, who represents the Beach District.
Additionally, the three members who sometimes vote as a bloc – Laura Hughes, Vicky Manning and Carolyn Weems – are all within the same district with a fourth board member, Dottie Holtz.
And Vice Chairperson Kim Melnyk, who represents the Princess Anne District, remains paired in a new district with Trenace Riggs, who represents the Centerville District.
Melnyk said it was not yet certain what the number of members located within the same districts as others will mean.
“We just need guidance,” Melnyk said. “We’re bound by the decision Judge Jackson made, but we just need guidance with how to proceed with what this means for us.”
Another issue related to the School Board is how its 11th member would be elected in a 10-district system.
For the City Council, the mayor, who is the 11th member of that body, would still be elected by all city voters. On School Board, the chairperson is not directly selected by voters but by members of the board.
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