That’s the choice that Del. Dickie Bell had to make.
“We are pleased to accommodate you and support you as a citizen legislator in the Virginia General Assembly,” [Staunton School Board Chairman John] Ocheltree wrote. “We trust, however, that you recognize that your extended absence from your teaching duties creates hardship for the school division and that the board must strike a reasonable balance between meeting the instructional needs of our students and accommodating your service in the legislature.”
Bell said he took extra unpaid days last school year and was shocked when he was told he would not be permitted to do the same again.
Del. Bell, 63, is fortunate that he was able to retire. But should he have had to? I don’t think so.
At some point, we are going to have to look hard at this idea of “citizen legislators,” especially because it really limits who can serve. I’ll say it again: if we want a good cross section of people, we need to consider a full-time legislature with full-time pay.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Better full time pay than a full time job for them.
I’m with you on this one, Vivian. I think the salaries for legislators should be set up in a manner which allows people from all walks of life to serve. However, the work I’ve been doing here in upstate New York has helped to illustrate for me how this is just one step that we need to take in improving our state governments.
For example, New York literally had two senates trying to hold session recently due to the debate over same sex marriage. This is despite the fact that state legislators here earn $79,500 a year which make them the third highest paid state legislators in the country.
In other words, I think that the salaries are definitely an important factor but we also need to take some other steps to make it easier for people who could truly benefit our community to serve.
I am certainly glad to see that it is not just the Norfolk School Board that lacks a sense of reality. I hope one of our newer City Council people isn’t put in the same position.
If the legislator is taking unpaid leave, I would guess the pay given up by him should be higher than what a subsitute gets, so not sure what the issue is. I understand the loss to the students of continuity of instruction, but isn’t that what long term subs are for?
I would also expect that what Del Bell could bring to the classroom from his experience as a legislator is of greater value to the students than the lost continuity. What great lessons he could teach, whether his field is social studies, math, business, or shop.
That said, if the School Board feels this way, the rule should be for future electeds, not current. Make it a policy, then see if there is a court test.
I don’t agree with you Vivian about a full-time legislature.
However, I think a law that requires employers to act more rationally, perhaps requires them to treat abscense due to service in the state legislature the same as National Guard duty, makes sense.
Part of the problem is that the General Assembly session is no longer 2 months at the beginning of the year.
It’s the committee meetings, board meetings, special sessions, commission meetings, public hearing statewide tours, etc. These things run all year long.
I doubt the “citizen legislature” of centuries past had these yearlong responsibilities. Likely, in more agrarian times, they would have been equally impossible to manage.
If we’re going to keep a part time legislature, their duties outside the district need to end at Sine Die.
Debating about a full-time/part-time legislature is like throwing a boomerang. The pros in favor of a full-time legislature is that a broader cross-section of people will theoretically be able to serve as legislators because they won’t have to struggle to balance their work responsibilities with their public responsibilities.
The cons against a full-time legislature is that you eventually end up with a very-narrow cross-section of people who serve in the legislature: every single one of them will be full-time, professional politicians.
BK: You raise a good point.
The out-of-session workload has increased a lot just in the last 20 years.
I still don’t want a full-time legislature for the very reason that Silence raises — we’ll end up with professional politicians. We’ve already got a few of those in the GA — where a member who works the system can bring in $50K plus a year from the legislature (salary, plus office allowance that requires no accounting, plus per diem in and out of session) — and, in my experience, they are among our worst legislators.