Charleston County school board candidate Arthur Ravenel Jr. should declare now whether he would seek to retain or dismiss Charleston County Schools Superintendent Maria Goodloe-Johnson, local NAACP leaders said Friday.

Ravenel's response: The NAACP is "irrelevant."

A day after Ravenel entered the race, the rift between him and the Charleston branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People picked up exactly where it left off when Ravenel retired from the state Senate.

NAACP leaders said Ravenel's candidacy appears designed to upend the 5-4 majority that Goodloe-Johnson has enjoyed on many close votes.

Additionally, they said the November election is quickly shaping up as a referendum for all Charleston voters on the superintendent's performance, with Ravenel as the catalyst.

"There have been persistent rumors over the last month that Mr. Ravenel would seek election to the school board primarily to create a board majority with a new direction, and to pursue Dr. Goodloe-Johnson's dismissal," Charleston branch president Dot Scott said during a press conference.

Scott said that Ravenel, and all school board candidates, in the name of fairly educating the voters, should "clearly confirm or refute the rumors" that firing Goodloe-Johnson is a goal.

Goodloe-Johnson is the county's first black school superintendent. She has been on the job since January 2004.

Ravenel, 78, said he has no idea whether he would seek to remove the superintendent. Any decision would have to come from the full board, he said. He called the school system a mess.

He also said he would never answer to the NAACP.

"I'm not going to let the NAACP, which I consider an irrelevant organization, badger me to say if I am going to replace

Ms. Goodloe-Johnson," he said.

He called the group's line of questioning "irresponsible."

"Running around and asking people 'Are you for firing Goodloe-Johnson?' It doesn't make sense," he said.

Ravenel, a former U.S. Congressman and state senator from Mount Pleasant, formally announced his candidacy Thursday at the county Republican Party convention, even though the school board seats are non-partisan.

Ravenel made it clear that he was crafting a slate of four other conservative candidates to join him on the November ballot. The names on his slate have not been released.Goodloe-Johnson did not return a phone call seeking comment. The NAACP said it did not contact her in advance of Friday's press conference.

Scott said there have been improvements under Goodloe-Johnson, including increased test scores, more nationally certified teachers in the ranks and more students receiving scholarships.

Most of the problems with the district were inherited ones, she added.

The Rev. Joe Darby, the local NAACP chapter's first vice president, said he doubted that Ravenel's candidacy was an attempt to rekindle the idea of a separate school district in Mount Pleasant.He also said that as a reverend, he often prays for Ravenel and the verbal missteps "that are part of his nature."

Ravenel has on two occasions called the NAACP an association for "retarded people." His only apology was to people with mental and physical conditions, and he said he mixed up his words. Ravenel is the father of a son with Down syndrome.