School Board Returns To Elected Membership

After eight years, the former D.C. Board of Education will return to an all-elected body as the D.C. State Board of Education after Tuesday's election.

Twenty candidates are seeking nine seats on the board, which was established as part of the D.C. Public Education Reform Amendment Act of 2007.

Board members are responsible for advising the state superintendent of education on academic standards, teacher accreditation and certification standards, policies for parental involvement and rules for enforcing school attendance requirements.

The board was stripped of its day-to-day management of public schools when the council agreed in June 2007 to give Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) authority over school curriculum, operations, personnel and facilities.

In July 2000, the D.C. Council approved legislation to change the structure of the board from an all-elected body to a hybrid board of elected members and mayoral appointees.

The hybrid board included five elected members, two members appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the council, and two student members. Four of the five elected members were from four school districts representing two D.C. wards. An at-large member was elected as president of the board.

But, by December 2004, the council amended the legislation to end the hybrid board by noon Jan. 2, 2009, and return it to an elected body.

The nine-member State Board of Education will consist of eight members representing each District ward and one at-large member. The board will select a president from its members.

Although board members will serve four-year terms, those elected from Wards 1, 3, 5 and 6 will serve initial two-year terms ending in January 2011. Members elected from Wards 2, 4, 7 and 8 and the at-large member will serve four-year terms ending in January 2013. The purpose is for board members to overlap every two years. Those elected from Wards 1, 3, 5 and 6 will serve four-year terms beginning in January 2011.