3132                                                VETOES

bill would give to the County Council of PTAs the
responsibility for nominating candidates to the Board;
then the Board would select to fill its own vacancies.
While I think it eminently appropriate for the public to
be involved in the process, I question the County Council
of PTAs being the appropriate body. For one thing, it is
not a legally responsible body, nor does it respond to
the wishes of the electorate as expressed at the ballot
box. For another, the County Council is not
representative even of the patrons of the school system.
We have 26 schools, 25 of which are eligible to have
PTAs. The record, however, is that only 14 schools have
functioning PTAs.

In addition, attendance at regular County Council
meetings numbers only eight or ten people although each
of the 14 schools names four persons to represent it on
the Council. I believe this sufficient ground to
question the representativeness of the organization.

The bill also would provide for only two lists of
three names each to be recommended to the Board. If no
one is selected from those six names, it appears that the
point of impasse is reached. It does not provide for
additional names to be proffered.

If this legislation becomes law, I can foresee a set
of circumstances where we might be operating for a period
of two or three years without a functioning Board of
Education. The membership of our current elected Board
now contains three members appointed by you, the
Governor. Let us say we were relying on the County
Council of PTAs, an organization having no legal
foundation, and one not necessarily meeting the
conditions of its own bylaws concerning membership and
attendance. There is no way that I see that the County
Council can be forced to nominate. And, assuming six
names are put forward and none is acceptable to the
remaining Board members — The consequences are unhappy to
consider.

One other point — I also question the idea of Board
members selecting to fill vacancies within their own
ranks. The idea of a self—perpetuating Board is not a
sound idea to me. Consider the situation the new Board
member would face if he knew that he had been selected
to join the Board by a vote of 4 to 2. I believe that he
would feel that his presence on the Board would
constitute a source of conflict rather than a positive
contribution. And this, too, in my view, is not a good
situation.

I have certain reservations about sending you this
letter. As the Charles County Superintendent of Schools,
it is not my formal role to be involved in the actual