At least one sitting Howard County Board of Education member stands to lose his or her seat in the 2012 election if a proposal to hold board elections by district becomes law.

The proposal is part of a recommendation from the Howard County Board of Education Study Commission, formed by County Executive Ken Ulman, to come up with a school board structure that would foster diversity on the seven-member nonpartisan board. The commission, which concluded its work Monday, Sept. 26, recommended Howard create a hybrid school board with two appointed members and five elected by district.

School members have been elected at-large (county-wide) since 1974. Before that, members were appointed.

Because changing the school board structure involves amending state law, Del. Frank Turner, a Columbia Democrat, is filing a bill to implement the commission's recommendation. His proposal has five members elected by district, using the five County Council districts, and two members appointed by the county executive and confirmed by the council.

"When making an appointment to the county board, the county executive of Howard County shall endeavor to assure that the county board reflects the race, gender and ethnic diversity of the population of Howard County," the bill reads.

Ulman said he strongly supports the bill at a Tuesday, Sept. 27 news conference.

The Howard County delegation, which will vote on whether to back Turner's bill, will hold a public hearing on the proposal Oct. 11 at 7:30 p.m. in the George Howard Building, in Ellicott City. If the delegation does not support his bill, Turner said he will not move forward with it on his own.

"This bill is not carved in stone," Turner said, noting changes can be made.

If the delegation approves Turner's bill and the General Assembly passes it during the special session next month, it would take effect Jan. 1, 2012, in time for the election later that year.

Staggered terms

School board members have staggered four-year terms — three elected in presidential election years and four in gubernatorial election years. Turner's proposal would continue that tradition.

In presidential election years, starting with 2012, voters would select members for Districts 4 and 5, where six of the seven current board members currently reside. One member would be appointed that year.

Turner said the implementation would be gradual, so the four members who were elected in the 2010 election — Frank Aquino (District 2), Sandra French (District 5), Brian Meshkin (District 4) and Cindy Vaillancourt (District 4) — will be able to hold their seats until their terms are up in 2014.

But the other three board members would have to run by district when their terms are up in 2012. For board members Ellen Giles and Allen Dyer, both of whom live in District 5, that would mean one of them would be guaranteed to lose the seat. They, like board chairwoman Janet Siddiqui who lives in District 4, would also run the risk of losing to a challenger.

In gubernatorial election years, starting in 2014, one member would be appointed and voters would select members for Districts 1, 2 and 3. Because Aquino is the only current member who lives in one of those districts, he would be the only incumbent eligible to run that year. French, Meshkin and Vaillancourt would have to wait until 2016 if they wanted to run for re-election.

Giles said she plans to run for re-election in 2012, whether the hybrid board proposal is implemented or not.

"I like what I do," she said. "I think this is important work."

However, Giles said, running from districts probably will heighten competitiveness on the board.

"I think it changes the complexion of the campaign, of the election, when you're literally pitting one person against another," she said.

Dyer also said he plans to run for re-election and that he would love to run against Giles.

"If that happens, I think that's dynamite," he said. "I'll go head to head with Ellen Giles any day. She has done her best to get me removed from the board without utilizing the democratic process."

In June, his fellow board members asked the state Board of Education to remove Dyer from office, a request gradually making its way through the system.

Despite his desire to run against Giles, Dyer criticized Turner's proposal as anti-democratic. "That's the wrong direction to go," he said.

Though the plan paints a grim forecast for sitting board members, Turner said that's not the goal of the bill.

"It's not my intention to get anybody unelected," he said. "My intention is to create a board that has greater diversity."

Term limits discussed

Meanwhile, a few of the study commission members, unhappy with panel's decision last week to recommend the school board move to a hybrid model, failed to get the other members to revote on the issue at their final meeting Monday, Sept. 26.

Commission member Chaunfayta Hightower suggested that the panel at least reconsider the appointments.

"I'm just not sure we made a decision that's really going to be in the best interest of this community," she said. "This is taking us so far back from where I think we've come."

Though the commission did not revisit its recommendation to have two appointed school board members, it did decide they should not be allowed to serve more than one four-year term. Panel members also discussed recommending term limits for the elected members, but did not reach a consensus.

Turner's bill does not include term limits.

"I'm not putting term limits on anybody, especially since there are no term limits on me," he said. "The best term limit is what the people decide."

Because county executives can only serve for eight years, Turner said there effectively are term limits for the appointed members, because a new executive is unlikely to reaffirm a past executive's appointments.

The study commission also unanimously recommended that board members' compensation — currently $12,000 — should be commensurate with their responsibilities, although members disagreed on what an appropriate level of compensation would be.

A change to board members' compensations also requires changing the state law and Turner is not proposing to do that at this time.

The commission also recommended that potential school board candidates be given an internship or mentorship opportunity, to help them understand what serving on the board is like and to increase their name recognition before they run. The panel did not suggest a specific plan for implementing that recommendation.