In response to a court action that was brought by three local ministers, the Alexandria School Board has agreed to hold a new vote for board vice chair at the first meeting in September.
On July 30, Lee A. Earl, senior pastor at Shiloh Baptist Church; Thomas Bolen, junior pastor at Shiloh Baptist Church and Elbert Ransom, a former assistant city manager for human rights, filed a petition for a Writ of Mandamus in Alexandria Circuit Court.
The petition asks the court to order the School Board to hold a new vote for the office of board vice chair because the board violated state law by selecting the vice chair by written ballot. Board member Molly Danforth was elected to that post, replacing Gwendolyn Lewis.
Board chair Mark O. Wilkoff announced the decision to re-vote late Tuesday. "I have authorized our attorney to tell the ministers that we will hold a new vote at our first September meeting," Wilkoff said. "We need to get this behind us and focus our attention on what is really important, student achievement."
RANSOM RESPONDED for the ministers. "We have agreed to meet with Chairman Wilkoff in early September," he said. "The only thing we wanted was a new vote and an acknowledgment that the proper process was not followed when the original vote was taken. Before we withdraw our petition, we want to have this meeting and determine whether Mr. Wilkoff is going to change the way he responds to members of the community who have concerns about the way the School Board is operating. To this point, he has not returned telephone calls or been willing to talk to many members of this community." The ministers became involved because of the perception that Lewis lost her position as vice chair as retaliation from several of her board colleagues.
"It seems apparent to me that Gwen lost her job as vice chair because she voted to fire the superintendent after the superintendent was arrested for drunk driving," Ransom said. "I was at the meeting on July 1 and I felt that all of us were ignored. The members of the School Board know me and didn't even acknowledge that we were there.
"This is just another example of their arrogance. They seem determined to ignore anyone who disagrees with them and filing a court action seems the only way to get their attention. I understand that a new vote may result in the same thing but that's not the point. The point is they clearly violated procedure and they need to be held accountable," Ransom said.
Earl called Danforth before filing the petition and asked her to hold a new vote. "We did have a telephone conversation," Danforth said. "However, I didn't consider that an official request. If someone wishes the board to re-vote on something, they should file a formal request with the board.
"As to the merits of the petition, I do not believe that we did anything wrong. We did not hold a secret vote. We have held written votes in the past and City Council has held written votes as well. The clerk read everyone's vote so it was public," she said.
The board was served with a copy of the petition and will have 21 days to respond. "Usually, that response is simply a denial of the charges," said Alexandria city attorney Ignacio Pessoa, who taught civil procedure at George Mason's law school. "After the respondent files, the judge will hold a hearing and decide whether to issue the Writ of Mandamus."
IN A RELATED MATTER, James J. Luby, Jr, the 19-year-old son of School Board Melissa W. Luby, entered a guilty plea in General District Court in Alexandria on July 28. He was charged with destruction of property for throwing eggs at the home of Jim Boissonault on July 2, after Boissonault spoke out against board decisions at a July 1 meeting. Luby will be sentenced on Aug. 6.
The Class 3 misdemeanor carries a maximum penalty of a $500 fine.
General District Court records had indicated that Luby had also been charged with being drunk in public. His attorney, Jonathan Shapiro, said that the drunk in public charge was an error. "The clerk told us that it was a typo," Shapiro said. "That strikes me as very strange." The error has been corrected and that charge has been removed from court records.
Another suspect in the egging incident, Samuel Howard Woodson IV, the 18-year-old son of Alexandria City Councilwoman Joyce Woodson, will appear in General District Court on Aug. 11 to face the same destruction of property charge to which Luby pleaded guilty.