VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — The Virginia Beach School Board will continue its membership in the Virginia School Boards Association.
The school board voted 7-3 on Tuesday night to approve paying the annual renewal dues of $13,779.73. Board members Victoria Manning, Carolyn Weems and Kathleen Brown were the no votes.
The vote comes after several school districts in the commonwealth, including Rockingham and Orange counties, recently voted to cut ties with the VSBA in favor over getting training and policy services from the right-wing School Board Member Alliance.
Virginia Beach’s board has been opting to pay for services from both organizations in the past year, and will continue to do so going forward.
Before Tuesday’s vote, school board member Victoria Manning, who’s been working with SBMA in an advisory role, said her vote would not be in violation of Virginia’s Conflict of Interests Act. She pointed to an opinion letter from Virginia Beach Commonwealth’s Attorney Colin Stolle, who Stolle said she contacted “out of an abundance of caution.”
In the letter, Stolle said that Manning’s reported volunteer position without compensation with the SBMA means that she doesn’t “have a personal interest in either VSBA or SBMA.”
Meanwhile board member Kathleen Brown said she thinks the values of the VSBA don’t align with the views of all school board members and some in the community.
School Board Chair Kim Melnyk though said rejoining VSBA was necessary for continued board training and more, particularly after she said she was denied admission to the SBMA over apparent differences in beliefs.
“Without it, many of us have no opportunity for professional development … we were fair last year, we pay for membership for the SBMA, we pay for members to attend conferences,” Melnyk said. “And not everybody in this community, nor everybody on this board align with their thought processes either.”
The School Board Member Alliance meanwhile is facing pushback in a community where it’s had some support. York County’s leadership cut future financial ties with the organization after they said the SBMA “demonstrated a lack of moral and business integrity” by threatening a board member over a recent board vote.
