Atlanta school board members marching off the same cliff as Clayton counterparts and dragging students with them
With Atlanta’s accreditation in jeopardy, the five-member majority of the Atlanta school board that is operating in probable violation of the law ought to come to its senses and comply with the state attorney general. In refusing to acknowledge that the policy change they forced through to enable them to elect a new chair and co-chair violated their charter, the five are putting the children of Atlanta in the crossfire.
And those kids have already paid enough of a price because of the self-serving and illegal actions of adults in the system.
The cheating by some APS teachers and administrators on state exams has cast a shadow on the legitimate achievements of Atlanta schools. It has tarnished the reputation of honest teachers and sparked tensions with the governor who has now sent GBI agents into the schools to investigate cheating.
This week, Mark Elgart, president and CEO of AdvancED, warned that his accrediting agency would be concerned if the board continued to operate in conflict with state law. If the APS board does not resolve its conflicts by Dec. 1, he said his agency will make a recommendation to its governing body concerning the system’s accreditation status. A loss of accreditation undermines the ability of APS high school students to qualify for scholarships, including HOPE.
To Khaatim Sherrer El, Yolanda Johnson, Courtney English, Nancy Meister and Brenda Muhammad, this is not about taking a stand. This is about taking the children of Atlanta into account and acting in their best interest.
The five board members have every right to question how Superintendent Beverly Hall has handled the CRCT investigation. They should ask hard questions. They should hold her and her staff accountable.
But they should do so within the confines of the law under which they were elected and under which they must operate.
Their policy change and their coup d’état were deemed in conflict with the law by Attorney General Thurbert Baker earlier this month. Baker ruled that the board’s governing charter — last revised in 2003 and approved by the General Assembly — spells out six specific situations when a board chairman or vice chairman may be removed from those positions in the middle of the two-year term. None of those six justifications was present when the five staged their revolt in September and commandeered leadership of the board, ousting Chairwoman LaChandra Butler Burks and replacing her with El.
This is not the moment to engage in a court battle with the Atlanta Public Schools in free fall and GBI agents roaming the halls.
The APS board is headed down the road taken by the dysfunctional and damaging Clayton County board of old. It ought to reverse direction now before it ends up in the same dismal place — with the schools losing accreditation and parents losing faith.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
116 comments Add your comment
What's best for kids?
October 28th, 2010
10:16 am
The State School Superintendent has the ability to recommend removal of a local superintendent. Where in the heck is Brad Bryant? Why has no one running talked about the ability of the SSS to recommend removal? Atually, one has. And it is Willis.
Tweets that mention Atlanta school board members marching off the same cliff as Clayton counterparts and dragging students with them | Get Schooled -- Topsy.com
October 28th, 2010
10:18 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by MONISE SEWARD, Connie Jackson. Connie Jackson said: Atlanta school board members marching off the same cliff as Clayton counterparts and dragging students with them http://t.co/ZA4P6Sm [...]
JacketFan
October 28th, 2010
10:29 am
PBM – Well, if the name fits … you and your counterpart are idiots. Neither of you add nothing of any substance to these discussions.
JacketFan
October 28th, 2010
10:30 am
Excuse me: “add anything of real substance to these discussions.”
Proud Black Man
October 28th, 2010
10:38 am
@ JacketFan
Your opinion, like your choice of a sports team, is faulty. Go whine somewhere else okay?
Booger
October 28th, 2010
10:54 am
I am one of John Trotter’s cousins, and I too tell the unvarnished truth. Mark Elgart is a fake…pure and simple. He is hypocritical…pure and simple. He sucks up to the rich and famous…pure and simple. An earlier poster mentioned Fulton County. Land of Goshens! Yes, micromanaging out the ying-yang. Remember that Superintendent John Haro quit after only five or six months on the job because of the egregious school board micromanaging? Remember the huge construction scandal which sent another Fulton superintendent to an early retirement? (The same construction company-financial conglomerate sent, I believe, the Mississippi governor to prison, right?) Still not a peep from Mark Elgart of SACS. Were complaints filed with SACS? Yes. Many.
Mark Elgart lives in Alpharetta (Fulton County), and he is not about to mess up his North Fulton buddies. Why then he couldn’t even show his face at the Country Club, the PTA, or in Publix’s Produce Section! Yes, boys and girls, Mark Elgart is, as Dr. John Trotter calls him, Georgia’s “biggest educational hypocrite.” Dr. Trotter has offered to debate this educational coward any time and any place concerning the uneven and inconsistent application of SACS’s so-called “standards” and whether a private company (with no accountability) like SACS should even be “accrediting” Georgia’s public schools, but Mark Elgart fails to answer the call. SACS also backed out of its appointed interview with John Trotter in Clayton County back in 2007. Yes, backed out! Is Mark Elgart afraid of John Trotter? John Trotter very happily agreed to be interviewed by SACS. Trotter was loaded to bear with facts about Ericka’s Davis’s (the Chair of the board at the time) and Rod Johnson’s (the Vice Chair of the board at the time) egregious and flagrant micromanaging of the school systems as well as the scandalous land deal (and the contract that was not even signed by the superintendent but by Ericka Davis, Eldrin Bell’s protegee) and the unauthorized contract “switcheroo” with attorney Dorsey Hopson. Nah, I think that ole Mark Elgart was and still is simply afraid of Dr. Trotter. Dr. Trotter says that Elgart is like the man behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz. Dr. Trotter says that “Mark Elgart is a boogerbear that needs to be exposed.” I like what Norreese Haynes said about SACS back in 2008: “SACS is a sham and a farce.” Word.
Full Disclosure: John Trotter is my second cousin, and he, Rev. Jimmy Jack Bourbon, Earl of Ft. Liqourdale, and I were having supper last night at Sprayberry’s Bar-B-Que in Newnan (it was easier for Earl to drive to Newnan from the airport; normally our Secret Society Meetings take place at Butch’s Chicken House Restaurant in Jonesboro). We discussed this phoniness of SACS. Rev. Bourbon finally stated that he would ask his brothers and sisters at The Driving Club (Piedmont, that is) never to allow Mark Elgart’s name to be placed on the Social Registry. He said that he would also check with The Phantom at the Fox to make sure that Elgart and Company are always given the draftiest seats in the theatre. Now if Mark Elgart thinks that John Trotter can be a pain, he ain’t seen nothing compared to the prophetic scorn of Rev. Bourbon. Rev. Bourbon might just lead his congregation up to Alpharetta to picket Mark Elgart’s church on a Sunday morning. “Pharoah Markie: Let my people go!” (c) Booger, October 28, 2010.
JacketFan
October 28th, 2010
10:55 am
Okay … since you say so ….
Larry
October 28th, 2010
11:29 am
Now is the time for Sonny Perdue to step in and remove the board. He has the power, I just hope he has the guts!
Booger
October 28th, 2010
11:33 am
I hope that the Governor stays at home and allows the voters to solve any perceived problems. Isn’t this how democracy works. This oligarchy stuff (aka Mark Elgart and SACS) smacks of Prussian Autocracy, not American Democracy.
Flabberghasted4sure
October 28th, 2010
2:15 pm
Maureen, Can you find out when SACS plans to respond to DeKalb Schools? SACS asked Dekalb to respond to an inquiry on 6 or 7 concerns. DeKalb sent them an extensive reply. Elgart promised a response 30 days after DeKalb filed a response. That was September 10th.
zoe
October 28th, 2010
2:39 pm
True demographics of Clayton County as of 2009. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/13/13063.html
20% White, 62% Black.
Chris
October 28th, 2010
5:31 pm
Booger –
The fact that deeply unserious people like you oppose Elgart ’s decision only makes me support him more.
You have made no argument about the particulars of what Elgart is saying. Instead, you are just trying to slime him.
I have no idea what stake you have in the scam that Mr El and his cronies are pulling, but don’t think that empty, vulgar rhetoric like yours is going to do anything but solidify opposition to this disgusting behavior.
Cousin Booger
October 28th, 2010
8:38 pm
Chris: I gave so many details in a previous post that you must have gotten lost in the facts. No, Mr. Chris, Mark Elgart’s inconsistent, hypocritical, and partisan actions (partial toward those powers-that-be…hmm…like of the Chamber of Commerce ilk) slime him. He is an educational phony masquerading with a “holier than thou” pretension. I have no dog in the Atlanta school board fight, but I do know that the voters will take care of any matters of concern. We don’t need some pompous and effete educrat subverting the democratic process. Elgart is the one who has an agenda. Heck, if he were really concerned about the students in Atlanta, he and his fake SACS organization would have intervened years ago. Same thing in DeKalb and Fulton. He is simply carrying the water for Mr. Sam Williams and his Chamber friends who have supported Beverly Hall because Hall doles out money to these Chamber folk and businesses associated with the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and she also grants Kurd-like independence to the Northside schools. Now, was this snarky enough? Ha! Back to the Delta State and North Alabama game on CSS…
By the way, my cousin John Trotter asked me to do some blogging for him. He says that I have a nose for B. S. just like he does. I just cut right through the s__t! I am more snarky than Cousin John.
Maureen Downey
October 28th, 2010
10:22 pm
@Flabber, A news story tonight says:
jsh
October 29th, 2010
5:30 am
This whole things is outrageous for the future of the city and the taxpayors who are footing the bill for all this nonsense now including lawyers etc. All of the board members need to resign as well as Dr. Hall.
Is there a way we can withhold our APS tax on our property tax? Who wants to pay for this and a possiple loss of accreditation??
gogither
October 29th, 2010
7:05 am
Maureen, I understand you standing by your defense of Dr. Hall however let me pose a hypothetical: What if the GBI uncovers massive fraud and irregularities with the CRCT and accouting process, the discrepancies with graduation rates is really uncovered and the wheels fall off the wagon.
I think that these things will define the Hall administration not the Sam Williams way of obfuscating or fabricating transparency to guide support of her.