The Shadow
Debbie Michie and Karen Kessinger gathered hundreds of signatures on petitions that led to the referendum to elect school board members being placed on the Nov. 8, 2022, ballot.
Michie, a school bus driver and substitute teacher for the Alleghany Highlands Public Schools, represented the Alleghany Education Association (AEA) that voted to gather the required 1,107 signatures to have the issue (a yes or no vote to elect school board members) included on the ballot.
She recalled, “We (the AEA) had been talking for over a year, and at one of our meetings, we decided it was time to do it.”
After AEA voted to collect signatures of registered voters, Michie sprang into action.
“I went to my granddaughter’s softball games, two Fourth of July events, a Main Street event in Covington and two car shows,” Michie remembered.
She continued, “I got my first signature on May 21st, and I stood outside of Kroger and got 220 signatures during six weekends and five days.”
Kessinger, a retired biology teacher from the Covington City Schools, recalled, “I found out that the Covington Education Association was circulating petitions, and I asked to help.”
She added, “I made it my mission to gather enough signatures to file for the referendum.”
To have the referendum placed on the Nov. 8, ballot, the Covington Education Association (CEA) was required to gather 381 signatures.
Once the signatures were gathered, each signature had to be officially verified as being that of a registered voter. Also, authenticated data concerning each voter’s address was a requisite.
All of the data had to be checked by each registrar of the respective jurisdictions 111 days prior to the election, and both the AEA and CEA had the required number of signatures verified prior to the July 20 deadline.
Dawn King Lewis, an active member of CEA, helped spearhead the petition signing for the CEA, and Kessinger went door to door in Covington to help Lewis and her team.
Kessinger noted, “I went to various events around town to get signatures, but I went door to door for several weeks, and that is the way I got the most signatures.”
She observed that by going door to door that she was able to engage in dialogue about the issue of giving the people a say by electing their school board members rather than having them appointed.
The Alleghany Highlands Public Schools which became official on July 1 following the consolidation of Alleghany County Public Schools and Covington City Schools has seven school board members, four appointed by the Alleghany County Board of Supervisors and three appointed by the City of Covington’s City Council.
Michie observed, “The bottom line is that the school board members represent the people, so the people should be allowed to elect them.”
She said that she did not know Karen or Dawn before she started gathering signatures but that once they met that they worked as a team to gather enough signatures to file for the referendum.
Both the AEA and CEA gathered more signatures than required for the referendum, and Dorothy Carter, the Virginia Education Association’s representative from Rocky Mount, drove to the area frequently to assist both teams in gathering the required amount.
“There are only 16 school divisions in Virginia that still appoint their school board members, and Virginia was the last state to allow school board members to be elected,” Michie stated.
Michie concluded, “I want to thank the people who signed the petition, and now we have to inform the public what the referendum is about and urge them to vote.”
Kessinger said, “We both thank all of the people who signed our petitions.”
The many hours spent by Michie, Kessinger, and the other members of the two teams has given voters in the Alleghany Highlands the opportunity to decide which they prefer, to preserve the status quo by having school board members appointed or to hold elections that will determine future school board members.
