Lynchburg’s Vice Mayor is filing a petition to allow voters and parents to directly elect their school board members.
Chris Faraldi believes this would bring more parental involvement and transparency to schools.
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This is the only process allowed by state code where voters can decide if they want to transition to an elected school board in the city.
Approximately 5,500 signatures are needed in order to put this referendum on the ballot in November. The petitions will need to be finalized and sent to the Clerk of the Court by mid-July.
If you want to sign the petition, click here.
A full statement from Faraldi on the matter is provided below:
Lynchburg should have an elected school board. We need greater accountability and transparency within Lynchburg City Schools, greater emphasis on parental involvement, greater emphasis on the classroom, and greater emphasis on a great number of other items. Even more importantly, we need politicians to realize that we do not know better than you as a parent how to best educate, discipline, or raise your child. If this council were to continue this practice of “City Council Appointments” to the School Board, we conservatives would be no better than the 20-year majority that was just retired.
I'm saying no more closed-door appointments or meetings, no more disgust for parental oversight -- no more. It's time to call a spade a spade -- the appointment system is backward and wrong. Let's put an end to a school board system that keeps board members more accountable to members of the council and holds them completely accountable to the will of the people.
By signing on to the petition, folks are not expressing favor or opposition to the question itself but allowing the public to respond to the question directly. Given everything we have seen in the realms of education in the last two years, it's time to call the question.
Anyone interested in assisting us with this effort, please join us. We need all hands on deck, and I'm getting right to work.
Let’s finally empower voters to answer the question.
Vice Mayor Chris Faraldi