She joined the PTA in 1991 and was given the unglamorous job of ensuring that PTA activities did not exclude parents of the youngest pupils at her daughter's elementary school. Four years later, fellow parents at Piney Ridge Elementary elected her PTA president.

These days, Laura K. Rhodes travels across the state to lead workshops for the Maryland PTA, and she has become a clearinghouse for school-related news and legislation through an e-mail address book listing hundreds of names.

The efforts that made her one of Carroll's best-known parent activists paid off Tuesday, when Rhodes emerged as the top vote-getter in the county school board election, out-pacing both incumbents and winning nearly a quarter of the 114,997 votes cast in the six-way race for three open seats on the board.

'She knows this stuff'

In a serendipitous twist, what Rhodes considered neither groundwork nor planning 11 years ago when she first volunteered at her daughter's school paved the way for her overwhelming victory Tuesday.

"She's been so involved in so many levels of the school system that her knowledge and tireless work ethic are already proven," said Jean Wasmer, former president of the Carroll County Council of PTAs who met Rhodes four years ago.

"That made her an absolutely perfect candidate for the Board of Education. Laura didn't have to go out and do her homework to run this campaign," Wasmer said. "She knows this stuff because this is the life she has been living."

The daughter of a science teacher, Rhodes was born in California and grew up in the Clearwater area of Florida in Pinellas County. She moved to Maryland in 1986 when her husband, Bill, a computer network designer, was promoted and transferred.

The couple chose Carroll County for its low property taxes. They stayed because "we've fallen in love with the people and the school system," Rhodes, 40, said. "Every time I get frustrated with things out here, I talk to people in other counties and realize that, all in all, it's pretty good out here."

Full-time volunteer

After working as a psychologist and real estate agent, the mother of two turned to full-time volunteer work. She has served on committees for school improvement, administrative hiring, enrollment projections, student discipline, dress codes, parent involvement and new high schools, among many others.

In an attempt to give parents a stronger voice in their children's education, Rhodes began collecting e-mail addresses several years ago and sending mass mailings about public hearings, proposed legislation and education news. Rhodes sends as many as 35 e-mails each week to the parents on her list during legislative sessions.

"I got tired of hearing that no one ever heard from parents or what parents thought," she said. "So I made it a personal goal the past few years to let parents know when something was being voted on and what was being discussed. I don't care what [parents] say about it, but I wanted to give them the opportunity to say something. And it's worked - I hear from all sorts of elected officials that they've heard from the parents."

'It's time'

This summer, after years of serving "on the sidelines," as she puts it, Rhodes had an inkling that she could make the school system better by becoming one of those elected officials. Her friends nudged and prodded her a bit and she finally agreed.

"We talked to her for a while, saying, 'You need to go, it's time for you to do this, you'd be wonderful at it,'" said Mary Alexander, who took over Rhodes' post as Winfield Elementary PTA president this year. "When she finally threw herself in, it was like, 'Oh my gosh, you go girl, you're finally doing it.'"

If mothers identified with her campaign, associating Rhodes with the empathy and consideration that some voters felt was missing among the other board members, then teachers were nothing less than giddy over her candidacy. Rhodes was the only candidate among two incumbents and three other challengers who did not totally object to a work-to-rule job protest that teachers at 12 Carroll schools have waged this year over their workloads and salaries. Instead, she told audiences at public forums that the real problem was "that we have a staff that even feels it has to consider work to rule."

Although Rhodes is still a little embarrassed by all the attention - "I was always extremely shy, so this is a whole new ball of wax for me," she said on election night as friends showered her with bouquets and well wishes - others say she is no wallflower when it comes to something she believes in.

"Laura's feisty, and she's aggressive the way [departing school board President] Susan Krebs was aggressive, so I don't know that the composition of the board will change all that much," Wasmer said. "The board has a big job ahead of them with the budgetary and morale issues, but this is kind of like a new start. Sometimes with a new board, there's a sense of new energy and new resolve and I think Laura will bring some of that to the board."