By 2-1 Ratio, Boston Retains Appointed Board

By Caroline Hendrie

Boston voters came down strongly last week in favor of preserving their mayorally appointed school board, handing Mayor Thomas M. Menino and district leaders a resounding victory.

By a ratio of more than 2-to-1, voters rejected a ballot question that would have scrapped the seven-member board and reinstated the type of 13-member elected panel that governed the district from 1984 to 1992.

Supporters of the appointed school board interpreted the results as a powerful vote of confidence in the mayor, the board, and Superintendent Thomas W. Payzant, who left a high-ranking post in the U.S. Department of Education to assume control of the 63,000-student...