Public weighs in on whether Wico. Co. BOE officials should be appointed

The second of four public hearings on whether the Wicomico County Board of Education officials should be appointed or elected was held Tuesday night at Delmar Elementary school in Delmar, Md.

Currently, all board of education officials are appointed by the state.

At the hearing the public was invited to share their thoughts on three proposed options. One, keep the system the same allowing the state to appoints officials. Two, to have the public vote on who should fill the positions. Three, to have a hybrid model where five seats are voted on and two seats are appointed.

Although the hearings won’t be over for another three weeks, county officials said Tuesday that a majority of public support has been behind the hybrid model.

The past two attempts by the Wicomico County Council to change the way board of education seats are filled were unsuccessful as both referendums died at the state level.

However, this time around council president John Cannon said that he has word from the Eastern Shore state delegation that this time will be different.

“We’ve been given assurances from the members of the Eastern Shore delegation that they would be in support of what the council chose to put forward once we had all the public hearings and vetted all the issues properly,” Hall said.

There will be two more public hearings on the matter.

The next meeting will be held Tuesday Sept. 29 at the First Baptist Church in Salisbury, Md.