"The Charlottesville School Board acted improperly - and possibly illegally - when it took an unannounced vote late Tuesday on the fate of the Jefferson School, a board member said Wednesday.

Board member Muriel Wiggins described the unsuccessful bid to quash the planned transfer of the property's deed to City Council as premature and intentionally secretive. Member John Santoski made the motion far too late in the evening, after many concerned residents had left, Wiggins said.

"I'm questioning the legality of that," Wiggins said Wednesday. "I think John knew he had the votes and I didn't."

Wiggins, who opposes the transfer, said Santoski made his motion only because he knew it would fail, driving a spike in her bid to stop the plan.

Santoski publicly supports the transfer of the property, which long was the site of an all-black school and now houses the Jefferson Preschool. The city plans to sell the land to developers.

Santoski acknowledged Wednesday that he introduced the motion out of frustration, and that the vote likely will have to be retaken Jan. 17.

"I was feeling that we needed to make some movement," Santoski said. "It will come back up for an official vote at the next meeting."

Santoski made his motion hours after many residents, at the meeting's start, had urged the board to delay the deed's transfer and save the 70-year-old school as an educational institution.

Most of the speakers left when the board immediately plunged into budget talk after the public comment session, forgoing any discussion of Jefferson until the end of the meeting.

Wiggins blamed board Chairman Richard Merriwether for that, saying he purposefully left the matter until late.

But Merriwether denied the charge, saying he "was not trying to get everybody to leave. People could have stayed if they wanted."

Wiggins, who had planned to make the same motion at the Jan. 17 meeting, and colleague Olivia Boykin ultimately were the only supporters of taking back the deed, The motion failed, 5-2.

Santoski said he didn't know why Jefferson was so late on the agenda or why the board made so little comment after the lengthy public comment session. Merriwether said only a few words.

Wiggins, however, said Wednesday that "nobody [on the board] listens to anybody but themselves."

She was joined in her criticism by other advocates for the school's preservation.

"There's something cowardly about that School Board," said Alexandria Searls, an organizer of Citizens for Jefferson School. "My reaction [to the residents who attended the meeting] is respect, and that wasn't the School Board's reaction."

Some have said the chairman and others were under pressure from the city to vote, but Merriwether denied any outside influence. "I did vote the way I felt in my heart," he said.

Now that the deed is headed to City Council, the Citizens for Jefferson School likely will change tactics, focusing more on lobbying the council, organizer Nancy O'Brien said. The group will hold a meeting next week, although the date hasn't been set.

Councilor Meredith Richards, who said she was surprised by the hurried vote, said she understood both sides of the debate.

"It is rather late in the process for the consensus to form in the community," noted Richards, who attended the board meeting. "I believe the School Board had progressed probably too far in their own deliberations to turn around."

However, Richards added, "I think the School Board might have taken a little more time to think about their decision individually."

Richards and fellow councilor Kevin Lynch voiced their support for continuing to operate a city-run preschool in one location, possibly staying in the Jefferson School, but there may be too few council votes to realize that goal, she said.

The School Board will vote on where to send the 4-year-olds who attend the preschool at its Jan. 17 meeting." (Kate Andrews, The Daily Progress, January 10, 2002)