For Beach's sake, official in Middle East should quit

Quick - name all 11 members of the Virginia Beach School Board.

OK, how about five?

Three, anyone? PTA presidents, put down your hands.

All right, give me just one.

Sandra Smith-Jones.

Aha. Is anyone surprised?

The 11-year School Board veteran has been all over the news recently. That's what happens when you take a job in Saudi Arabia, resign from office, attend your own going-away party and then, with your mouth full of farewell petit fours, announce that you're really not quitting.

Rumor has it Smith-Jones didn't like the names of possible successors that were being floated. Or that she was feuding with a colleague. Or that she felt under-appreciated.

Or all of the above.

When I talked to her by phone Wednesday, Smith-Jones acknowledged she did not want to be replaced by someone who'd lost in the last election and would automatically become an incumbent with her departure.

Sheesh.

Welcome to the world of petty politics. Shenanigans such as these are what you get with an elected school board. Still, it's preferable to an appointed one made up mostly of City Hall lap dogs.

Yet Smith-Jones' capricious decision-making has some talking about a recall and others accusing her of setting a poor example for the city's schoolchildren. Frankly, the latter is amusing. If most Beach adults don't know the names of board members - and I'm betting they don't - how likely is it that their kids regard these faceless folks as role models?

Let's all just relax for a minute. She's on her way out. It's just a matter of when it happens. I asked Smith-Jones if she'd be tendering another resignation and she replied that she'd be staying on "for this moment."

Of course, there's this thing called an election next year.

Through the crackly cellphone connection, Smith-Jones assured me she would not run for re-election in 2012. Pity. I'd like to watch a campaign with a slogan such as "This job is so easy I can do it from the desert" or "I took more than $12,000 from the taxpayers and didn't show up for work."

Still, given her recent change of heart, it's not safe to assume that Smith-Jones won't be on the ballot next year. Remember, she wrote a letter of resignation on Aug. 16 and another one revoking it 14 days later.

Smith-Jones told me she would like to use the computer application Skype to electronically attend School Board meetings.

In fact, she noted that she'd been hired as an assistant principal of a girls' school in Saudi Arabia using the camera-phone feature.

"We're always pushing 21st-century skills," she said of the Beach school division. "It can be done."

She's right. Unfortunately, it's also illegal, according to the city attorney's office. The Virginia code specifically prohibits elected officials from taking part in meetings electronically except in a few special and specific circumstances. Taking a job across the globe isn't one of them.

But let's be honest. Smith-Jones' absence will not be noticed, except by those who count noses at meetings. She wasn't in town for the first day of school, yet the doors opened Tuesday. As weeks pass, tests will be given, book reports will be written, football games will be played, proms will be held and commencement exercises will take place while Smith-Jones is helping educate Saudi girls nearly 7,000 miles away.

Yet the missing School Board member will collect more than $1,000 a month, including benefits, until her term expires at the end of 2012. Seems to me the very least Smith-Jones can do is forgo her salary while she's abroad.

Oh, and one other thing: Just as etiquette requires that couples who break an engagement return any early wedding gifts, Sandra Smith-Jones should reimburse the taxpayers for the dough spent on what turned out to be her I'm-not-really-resigning party.

Kerry Dougherty, (757) 446-2306, kerry.dougherty@cox.net