By Elana Simms

Paramount’s Kings Dominion theme park, which donated about $69,000 to General Assembly members for last year’s elections, recently won a legislative battle to keep public schools from opening before Labor Day.

The top five recipients of Kings Dominion’s contributions were:

• Sen. Richard L. Saslaw, D-Fairfax, $4,500.

• Sen. Janet D. Howell, D-Reston, $3,000.

• Sens. William T. Bolling, R-Mechanicsville, Walter A. Stosch, R-Glenn Allen, and Warren E. Barry, R-Fairfax, $2,500 each.

Saslaw, Howell, Bolling and Barry all are on the Senate Education and Health Committee, which considers legislation affecting schools. Barry chairs the committee.

The amusement park in Hanover County divided its donations pretty evenly between legislative chambers – and between political parties.

Kings Dominion gave 50 House members a total of $35,549 and 24 senators a combined $33,250.

The 40 Democratic legislators on the Kings Dominion list received $32,640, while the 34 Republican lawmakers received $36,159.95.

Jim Copp, the Kings Dominion representative who handles General Assembly contributions, was unavailable for comment.

The House Education Committee voted in February to kill three bills that would have let local school boards schedule classes before Labor Day.

Those proposals would have overturned the so-called "Kings Dominion law" passed by the General Assembly in 1986. The tourism industry supported the law to ensure that teen-age employees would be available to work at resorts and theme parks through the Labor Day holiday.

Various attempts to repeal the Kings Dominion law have failed. Legislators say that’s because parents don’t want the law changed.

Delegate Anne G. "Panny" Rhodes, R-Richmond, approved of leaving the law alone.

"If you listen to parents, Labor Day is the time they have family time" during the summer vacation, she said. "I think you’d hear across the board that they don’t want this change."

Rhodes received $750 from Kings Dominion.