Does Clayton mess reveal a larger truth: School boards don’t work any more?
Haven’t we been here before with Clayton County? (And other counties as well, including several in rural Georgia.)
Did we learn anything from Clayton’s earlier woes or does the latest friction point to the larger problem of having citizens run school systems?
The AJC has a news story about the Clayton County school board chair suggesting that the governor intervene and remove some school board members to save the school system from losing accreditation again.
“We’ve had troubles on the board. We’ve had troubles for a long time,” Chairwoman Pamela Adamson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Wednesday.
Jacob Vigdor, a Duke public policy and economics professor whose writings I have run on the blog, issued a statement yesterday on the antics of the Wake County, N.C., school board, which fired its superintendent.
I thought Vigdor’s comment applied here:
When contemplating the ongoing soap opera that is the Wake County School Board, it is important to bear in mind that Wake is one of the 20 largest school districts in the United States. There are more than 17,000 districts across the country, the vast majority of them much smaller than Wake County. If the nation’s largest districts, those we might think of as having the best shot at professional management, can’t take care of themselves, how can we expect anything of the thousands of tiny districts across the country?
The United States delegates important education policy choices to over 17,000 local school boards and administrators. The overwhelming majority of these officials have minimal expertise in policy analysis — and clearly some have penchants for political vendettas that trump policy analysis. This has to be considered one of the key reasons American students lag behind those in other developed countries.
It’s time for a discussion of whether school boards work any more, given the complexity, costs and consequences of education today.
Consider the Clayton saga: In 2008, Gov. Sonny Perdue intervened after Clayton lost its accreditation and ordered the removal of four school board members. The district got a new board and a new school chief and regained accreditation.
But now, Superintendent Edmond Heatley departs tomorrow, and the district is again on shaky ground with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools for school board governance issues that could jeopardize accreditation. The issues include board member conflicts and attacks by some members on the school system and its personnel, wrote Mark Elgart, president and CEO of AdvancED, the parent company of SACS, in a letter.
Adamson said a majority of the school board members are working diligently to help the school system, which regained accreditation in 2011. But “certain board members have caused trouble almost since Day 1,” she said. Adamson declined to identify the school board members, but said one board member sent about 1,000 emails to Heatley in a 20-month period.
“He was so inundated he couldn’t do his job,” Adamson said, adding that a majority of the school board voted to change its protocol for how board members should communicate with the superintendent.
The board also has issued reprimands and imposed sanctions on individual members. Board member Jessie Goree was barred from serving as board chair or vice chair for two years and from collecting expense money for conferences and other travel, according to information on the school system’s website.
Goree was rebuked twice by the board — once for making derogatory remarks about board members and the superintendent and once based on a complaint by Heatley about her conduct at a meeting with parents, according to news reports. Goree acknowledged some friction on the board. “It’s normal stuff that happens when you have nine people trying to have a discussion,” she said. “There’s no perfection here.”
New SACS scrutiny comes just as Clayton is losing its superintendent. Heatley leaves the school system Friday after three years. He was in his office Wednesday but did not respond to requests for interviews.
Asked whether his departure is related to conflicts with some board members, Adamson said: “I wouldn’t be surprised. I know he has endured constant attacks since he’s been here.”
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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114 comments Add your comment
Private Citizen
September 28th, 2012
8:38 pm
Faulkner couldn’t spell, either.
Private Citizen
September 28th, 2012
8:43 pm
Maybe Jimmy Carter will open up a charter school specializing in government. Either that or how to farm or drive submarines.
Private Citizen
September 28th, 2012
8:44 pm
… he could do it at the Carter Center. They’ve already got a cafeteria.
Teacher in Clayton
September 28th, 2012
10:49 pm
As a teacher in Clayton County, I would also like to thank Jessie Goree for standing up to Heatley and the board members who were more than willing to rubber stamp whatever he wanted. Heatley is absolutely hated by the teachers of this county, his awful policies have made our lives so miserable. When Heatley forced us to attend a “pep rally” type event (which took hours of much needed planning time away from us on the last work day before school started) at one of the county stadiums, Ms. Goree was cheered by the staff members in the stands-not Dr. Adamson or Mary Baker who were also in attendance. The teachers and other staff know what is going on in the schools because of Heatley and the board members backing him. We are thrilled that he is gone. Only wish the board would not go on one of these nationwide “searches” for a super, we will only end up with another, as Dr. Trotter puts it, worthless and greedy “gypsy superintendent.”
Mary
September 28th, 2012
11:31 pm
The real problem with the Board of Education in Clayton County is a serious lack of good candidates. Often times, there are one or two people running for each seat. People keep waxing philosophical, rude, and downright racist about how poorly Clayco voters do at the polls. Heck, look at what we generally have to choose from. In most cases it’s a choice between No and No Way. But, we get blamed for voting stupid.
Will some honest, open-minded, concerned citizens in Clayton County please start stepping forward to run for these school board positions? We will support you if you come into the position with the students’ needs at heart – not your own interests and agenda. I know alot of good folks who would love the job. Unfortunately, we’re all currently employed in Clayton County Schools and therefore ineligible to run for a seat. So, we keep waiting for someone to step up and lead the way to a BOE that commands some respect and makes sound decisions.
With all of the business owners, community members, and parents out there who are so sick of how Clayton Co schools operate, we can only scrounge up 20 or so candidates for all 9 districts in these school board races? My numbers may be off, but as an educator AND resident of Clayton County, I can see that we need more options.
If you live here, stop complaining and STEP UP! If your lifestyle won’t allow you to hold a BOE seat, encourage someone else to run for a seat – someone with integrity and tenacity. We’ve got to take this bull by the horns.
Beverly Fraud
September 29th, 2012
9:44 am
“Let there be no confusion, when Elgart talked about “outside influence” that is raising its ugly bearded face again is none other than our own infamous Mr. Trotter.”
Well yes HLS why NOT have “no confusion”? Why won’t Elgart be SPECIFIC? And why won’t YOU address Elgart’s agenda?
After all, is this not the guy who, if THIS very paper is to be believed worked to ACTIVELY whitewash the largest cheating scandal in American educational history by attempting to keep in power a board chair who conspired with the Superintendent to cover up evidence of cheating?
This is your educational hero, who would restore “ethics” back to ClayCo?
Private Citizen
September 29th, 2012
11:01 am
Does anyone want to revisit the topic of “focus schools” and schools being formally stigmatized and publicized as lacking because they are community schools that house both high flying professional family kids and kids with disabilities under one roof?
My point is that with this degree of intrusion and meddling, I do not think there is a school board anywhere that can protect or guide their own schools. You can make up a school board of MLK and the Kennedy’s and it does not stop the outside meddling and mandates. This morning I thought of this “focus school” harassment and I thought of some of the SPED kids, the ones with serious disability sitting in their softly lighted room happily doing art and “light” activities and feeling loved and doing this under the same roof as other kids who will go on to study particle physics or be a shoe-in for law school or other professional training. So someone comes along and decides this is a bad thing and sprays some money at it like pest spray. It seems no school system will refuse money, whether it is attached to “focus schools” or “race to the top” (a horrific cheap name) or if it is attached to Mata Hari or Jeckll and Hyde, they’ll take the money and make the staff line up and play along. The net result it that no school likes to be called out or publicly humiliated. The easy answer is to stop “focusing” on educating all of the children to their best abilities. Focus on destruction. Get out the big hammer and flatten everybody out, forced equilvency. Some on this blog once mention the Kurt Vonnegut story “Harrison Bergeron.” “Focus schools” is this science fiction story made real. And the interesting part is that no one knows who authored it or where it came from, but the citizens of Georgia are set to obey. Georgians, you ought to be ashamed of yourselves.
I am someone shocked to review this blog article on the “focus schools” circa March, 2012 and there is so little uptake at the time at how bizarre and destructive is this type of intrusion. And it is reported that the designation came from the state DOE. Well, it didn’t. It came from the federal department of education as part of NCLB. But any and all school boards merrily dance along and maybe the state is the worst at this “redelivery” business. When it comes to mandates, school boards do not protect or shephard anyone. And in this regard it does not seem to matter who is one the schoolboard, whether they are a felon, a person with a GED, a caring activist, or a competent .phd. End of Rant.
The Vonnegut story is five pages long. Read the first sentence. http://www.wordfight.org/bnw/bnw-unit_packet.pdf
DeKalb Teacher
September 29th, 2012
11:07 am
I echo Mary@11:31’s sentiments. I have begged and pleaded with people across my county to run for BOE to no avail. What can we do?
Dr Walker, BOE chair in DeKalb, is retired,bored and likes the attention so he calls meetings 2 or 3 times a week. Only retired people can respond to that schedule. BOEs should only meet twice a month.
Would we get candidates if we paid more (currently 20k ish)? Isn’t that why we pay astronomical salaries for administrators?
Otherwise, I don’t see why we keep doing the same thing and expect different results.
Mary
September 29th, 2012
1:14 pm
@Dekalb Teacher:
Maybe we should start an exchange program. We can get some DeKalb residents who teach in Clayton to run for the board there in DeKalb and some Clayton residents who teach in DeKalb to run for the BOE here in Clayton. Both sides of us are sick and tired of what’s happening in our schools and how bad we are being made to look, when it has nothing to do with what’s going on in classrooms and schools.
Now, clearly some past examples have shown that just ANYONE who is an educator won’t make a good candidate for the BOE. But, those of us in the trenches know what kind of people are needed.
I personally think retired educators are good candidates. I guess they just have to realize that board members with full time jobs don’t have all day every day to attend to board issues. So I challenge some more of our retired educators to give some serious thought to stepping up to the plate. If you’re retired and bored, or just have some extra time to give back to the schools and community, give this some serious thought. I can think of several retired or resigned Clayton educators who can and should think about this for future elections.
Arghhhhhh!
September 29th, 2012
7:31 pm
@Pride and Joy, THANKS. @Beverly can we just allow this child this time to shine. What that watusi does your comment have to do with the story. People can we please STICK TO THE STORY AT HAND! You all talk about kids – GEES!
To those asking where was the board and teachers, etc – you try being an educator with the empty kids there are today. I wouldn’t teach for all the gold in the US Mint. Sadly when I read comments posted in response to the AJC’s stories it doesn’t surprise me why some kids are as empty as they are.
Congrats to this young lady.
Arghhhhhh!
September 29th, 2012
7:32 pm
Dangit wrong response board – oops!
Dr. Cletus Bulach
September 30th, 2012
11:49 am
In the 14 years I was a school superintendent, I had two good years with a school board that worked together. I became an expert in conflict management. Visit my website for more info at http://www.westga.edu/~cbulach
Maude
October 2nd, 2012
7:27 am
Yesteday was a great day for the children of Clayton County. Finally they have a superintendent even as an interim superintendnet that cares about children and public education. My question is how long can we keep her as an interim?? Will she have time to help the children and employees of Clayton County Public Schools?
Dr. Cletus Bulach
October 2nd, 2012
10:52 am
I would be willing to provide training for any school board that wants to work more effectively as a team. Conflict management is always an area where school board members need training. School board meetings can get extremely heated. The biggest problem with school board members, however, is in the area of interpersonal communications. There are five basic interpersonal communication skills. I can do a seminar that teaches each of these skills. The most important skill is 1) paraphrasing, 2) description of feelings, 3) behavior description, 4) non-verbal behavior, and 5) is giving and receiving feedback. With training in how to used these basic communication skills, many conflicts can be avoided.