Wicomico Eyes Three-Option School Board Referendum

SALISBURY – Wicomico County will make another bid this year at legislation enabling a referendum on an appointed versus and elected public school board, but officials are still seeking clarification on what the referendum should look like.

For years, Wicomico County has wrestled with the concept of going from a school board appointed by the governor to an elected school board or a combination of the two. In 2011, a bill in the General Assembly that would have put the question to the voters in Wicomico through the referendum process passed the House, but failed in the Senate when the clock expired on the session.
Four years later in the 2015 session, another attempt at taking the elected versus appointed school board question to referendum stalled in the General Assembly. County officials have since held four public hearings on the issue, taking testimony from stakeholders in all corners of the county and the County Council is now preparing a renewed effort at getting legislation passed in the upcoming General Assembly session to get the referendum question on the ballot in time for the 2016 general election.

However, county officials this week were still wrestling on the language in the proposed legislation and perhaps more importantly, what the referendum question might actually look like. Wicomico remains one of the few counties in the state with a school board fully appointed by the governor. After an extensive public hearing process, the referendum question has been winnowed down to three choices: keep a fully appointed school board; move to fully-elected seven-member school board; or opt for a school board consisting of five elected members and two appointed members.

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