APS school chief: Is Davis a goner? How much of a role did North Atlanta High play in his fall from grace??
The Atlanta School Board delayed again a vote on whether to renew the contract of Superintendent Erroll Davis Monday night, a clear result of the clumsy way he handled the removal of top administrators at North Atlanta High School two months ago.
Along with exposing rifts on the school board, the delay in the Davis vote also speaks to the power of organized, angry and determined parents.
The suddenness of the purge at North Atlanta left many parents and students frustrated and upset. And energized to oust Davis from the APS superintendency.
Whether the change in top management at the high school was warranted is still being debated, but there is consensus even among Davis fans that he underestimated the backlash his decision would cause and created unnecessary grief for himself and the district.
And that was evident Monday in the board maneuvers resulting in a postponement of a vote to extend Davis’ contract.
The AJC has a story this morning that quotes parents who oppose and support Davis. “He came on board in the midst of two major crises facing APS, with the cheating scandal placing public trust in jeopardy and board dysfunction calling our accreditation into question,” said the parent in support. “He has since moved the district to a place where we can actually begin to build something rather than fix something.”
The parent who opposes him after the North Atlanta mess said, “He started out as a good administrator, but he seems to have devolved.”
The decision to postpone the vote came after Davis supporters lost a key procedural vote that means it will take only three votes on the nine-member board to block the extension of Davis’ contract, which expires in June.
The board met in executive session for more than three hours before emerging around 11 p.m. and approving a motion by District 4 board member Nancy Meister to require a supermajority of seven votes to extend Davis’ contract instead of the usual simple majority of five votes.
Meister said the policy change would help keep the board in good standing with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accrediting agency, which recommended the board decide by a supermajority when it hired Davis in 2011. The board then voted unanimously to hire him. Meister’s motion to require a supermajority passed 5-4 over strong objections by board chairman Reuben McDaniel.
The board then voted 8-1 to appoint a search committee in January to look for a new superintendent. But Davis opponents couldn’t get enough votes to defeat a motion by vice chairman Byron Amos to delay the vote for the second time. The board first postponed the vote in October. Amos’ motion to delay passed 5-4.
The board will meet 3 p.m. Monday, Dec. 10, to decide Davis’ fate as superintendent. That gives supporters a week to try to corral seven votes on a board that seems deeply divided.
District 6 board member Yolanda K. Johnson asked Amos how he expects “anything will change between now and a month of Christmases” that will alter the outcome of the vote. “We seem to have had a fair amount of discussion,” she said. “How do you anticipate change will happen?”
Amos responded: “I think we’re almost there, but we’re not quite there.”
The exchange drew sighs and moans from members of the audience who had stayed late expecting a vote on an issue that has impassioned supporters on both sides. Almost a dozen speakers addressed the board over Davis’ leadership before the board went into executive session. About half spoke in favor of extending his contract while half spoke in favor of searching for a new superintendent.
One of Davis’ loudest critics, parent Cynthia Briscoe Brown, told the board he is a destructive force in the school system and should not be renewed because “he has lost our confidence” over actions such as removing six administrators from North Atlanta High School.
Parent Suzanne Mitchell said the board should renew Davis for two years to carry out the five-year strategic plan he and the board just completed after a year’s work. “We must give the plan time to take hold,” she said.
Davis, a former University System of Georgia chancellor with the support of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and Gov. Nathan Deal, came out of retirement in to take the job in July 2011 knowing the state was about to announce the revelations of an investigation that implicated about 180 Atlanta Public School educators for cheating during the administration of the 2009 Criterion-Referenced Competency Test.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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83 comments Add your comment
jw
December 4th, 2012
10:50 pm
@ 11:42am on 12/4 Jarod Apperson wrote: “Even with Davis’s shortcomings, I’m not sure getting rid of him is the right move. I just don’t have much confidence in the board’s ability to select a replacement. There’s a fair chance they could pick someone much worse.”
I’m with Jarod on this one, though I think there is WAY more than a fair chance that the APS BOE would choose a complete disaster of a superintendent if given the chance.
Ivan
December 5th, 2012
7:47 am
@Pride and Joy – Coan has a new principal and there is a new attitude there. The cheaters are gone and with a small school to turnaround; just wait, Coan will be a great school.
Doris M
December 5th, 2012
9:35 am
I think Davis is a goner due to his handling of the Northside High School debacle and the emergency at Finch Elementary. If these actions are any indication of his leadership, APS would be much better off with a new superintendent.
JB
December 5th, 2012
9:50 am
Let’s compare the performance of other supers. Beverly Hall. Crawford Lewis. Cheryl Atkinson.
APS board members must be acutely aware that it is impossible to please all of the people all of the time, especially when it comes to their children. Leadership is not about making individuals happy, as the above supers tried to do. It’s about moving people in a direction which brings success to the group. Davis led APS brilliantly during one of the most difficult periods in their history which included systemic cheating, possible loss of accreditation, massive budget shortfalls and a redistricting. He managed a Board, which may have had quality individuals, but was completely dysfunctional as a group – they filed a lawsuit against each other. While I may not agree with Davis’ handling of NAHS – one challenge of many — I also know that, because it is a personnel issue, I probably have about 10% of the information necessary to form an opinion. The fact that Davis has kept quiet at great personal cost leads me to believe he has the strength of character APS needs in leadership. I agree with Jarod and JW and am wary of the Board’s ability to function without him, much less hire a quality superintendent.
Justice Seeker
December 5th, 2012
9:51 am
If you think Davis’ decisions are race-based, you should see what will happen if they promote Karen Waldon…and why does no one talk about her involvement in the NAHS scandal?
suga
December 5th, 2012
3:04 pm
This is what happen when you cross the rich North Atlanta, Hall played by there rules and there were no problems, But Davis cause a problem and he’s out.As long as Davis shuting school down in the lower area one No said a word……… But as soon as NAHS WAS CALLED OUT….money & power spoke out and Mr. Davis will lose his job. Northside/North atlanta high, has always been the elite, And now it show’s who can rule, and rule with MONEY.i FILL sorry for the next person who want sell out to North Atlanta Elite, they will loose there job as well.
bootney farnsworth
December 5th, 2012
3:17 pm
Davis is headed out the door (assuming he is) because he and APS reached some sort of deal where he takes on for the team and they pay in handsomely for it.
and then while attention is elsewhere, NAHS is gonna get really ugly
bootney farnsworth
December 5th, 2012
3:18 pm
“Hall played by the rules and there was no problem…”
in what universe?
skipper
December 5th, 2012
3:34 pm
@suga,
Perhaps you should go back to school. There is a profound difference between keyboarding errors and illiteracy, and you appear to be bordering on the latter……
skipper
December 5th, 2012
3:36 pm
Better yet, suga, you may be the perfect example of why school improvement is needed! The so-called “elite” want a better education for their kids…..how the heck do you think thay could EVER get that at an inner-city scholl…..and be honest!
skipper
December 5th, 2012
3:38 pm
Thats “school”. It was a typo, not the massacre of the language you so aptly demonstrated in your post!
Private Citizen
December 5th, 2012
4:40 pm
Skipper the hater, Why so tacky? You should learn to write in standard English without multi-dots, also called ellipsis. Your text reads like a note off your bedside table. You may also wish to lose the whole word capitalization for emphasis and perhaps not ever again put an exclamation point at the end of a written expression of your own opinion in the form of editorial. To continue, using extreme qualifiers like “perfect” does not show detail or particular description, care, or insight, however the most obvious need for tune up is to straighten out your use of capitalization and punctuation lest your breach the borders of making the literate ill. And you be illin’ me. You think you killed it with a line. I think you ran it off the road. If you don’t want to be illin’, and you want to start killin’, go down and empty your pockets at the grammar store and see what is on sale.
I give you one compliment. Standard English does not use contractions and you have made a 100 on that metric.
Private Citizen
December 5th, 2012
4:42 pm
I take it back. And you did not even use the apostrophe. 3 points off.
skipper
December 5th, 2012
5:00 pm
@Private citizen…….
Being a “hater” is not me. Likewise, realizing that “suga” having an opinion on education is apparantly a joke at best does not qualify one as a hater. I loved my grandma: but if I owned the Falcons, she would not (even if she requested) get a tryout at QB! Point being that she was not qualified to try for it, as the heretofore mentioned person is spewing “jealousy-venom” and does not appear qualifyed to do so.
The fact that someone wants to dog-out those who wish for better is enough to bring out the defense mechanism. You know doggone well that the inner-city system is a cluster and will stay so! Check back in five or six years. Think it will be better?
APS Parent #2
December 5th, 2012
7:40 pm
@How Indeed. Take a glance at today’s AJC article referencing parent groups who support or don’t support Davis. StepUp’s co-founder has identified her position with a reference to her title. This is how that group has always spoken and mostly from this parent. She has been quoted in many newspaper articles and on many news clips since the group formed so she is just carrying forward with that group’s platform it seems to those of us who aren’t members of that group.
@Pride and Joy. If you don’t have an issue with the building and you are looking for a quality education, need I point out that the new Coan principal is the same principal who developed Inman’s reputation as an academic school? If you move a lot of kids down to Coan with a great principal, then you will have the same conditions for a quality academic environment as Inman. Which by the way, I have heard from parents at Inman that its quality is eroding so I am not really sure that you have come out ahead wiht so many kids stuffed in a building and losing such a quality principal.
Private Citizen
December 5th, 2012
7:57 pm
To be honest with you, I know very little about the Atlanta “inner city system” schools. I think I know some of the politic, though. Skipper, people are entitled to their opinion. Expressing opinion is good, a good and welcome thing. It’s how people learn. It’s how the humanities are taught. One’s own opinion and references juxtaposed with another’s. It’s how we learn to think for ourselves and hopefully do so in an informed manner.
Private Citizen
December 5th, 2012
8:11 pm
PS suga is right about money and power. It comes in many forms. That’s what politics is, “who has the power.” It would be nice if we were a little more “egalitarian concept oriented” in place of “power” struggles. Power struggles for whom? I’ll tell you this, what Mr. Davis did at NAHS was wrong for one reason only: abuse of labor. Now he’s in a fix. There’s no way to reverse engineer it. If he was truly sensible and dedicated be would visit with the individuals he harmed and they would come forward and say it’s all better now. But that is not what he is doing. As has been the concept from time immemorial, when a person does wrong, they have to step forward and make it right. To not do so leaves the wrong in motion and is basically cosmic pollution, unresolved chaos. If Mr. Davis does something incorrect and makes no effort whatsoever to right it, he has no business being the executive of anything. Higher castes have greater responsibility than lower castes. Even the mighty BP oil company just pled guilty to many crimes associated with the Gulf of Mexico oil rig catastrophe. I guess they had no choice because they had hidden information and evidence and were caught. I suggest Mr. Davis meet with each of those workers he displaced and yield some concern, care, and dignity toward them. He’s got some housecleaning to do and if he chooses to not right his actions, his alternative is a lot of time on a golf course, or to be a visionary achiever somewhere else. In this regard, I am not rejecting the man in any way, but I am setting performance conditions that must meet to resolve the chaos he has created and for every person, including himself to prosper a wholesome manner. Why is this such a thoroughly unacceptable idea in the City of Atlanta? I wonder, I really do. It seems like a woeful juvenile place, and I’m talking about the well paid and conceited adults who appear to have very little skills of by-the-book business diplomacy associated with prosperity.
Top School
December 6th, 2012
2:43 am
oH GAWD! the typo…grammar police elite are out to prove their correctness on a blog again.
Same old APS -BS …and the cover-up of BUCKHEAD’S FINEST continues…
And the beat goes on…
And YES…IT HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH RACE RELATIONS.
Top School
December 6th, 2012
2:46 am
and YESS………mASTER BUCKHEAD… Davis is GONE WITH THE WIND…
Top School
December 6th, 2012
2:55 am
At least the new Principal at North Atlanta High School can rake in all those holiday bribes …gift cards…while all those Buckhead parents with less than appropriate ethics use their money to buy favors for their children. After all it is common practice in their corrupt businesses practices. Nothing new. Wall Street to the School House.
20/20
December 6th, 2012
8:34 am
Erroll Davis and his administrative team Karen Waldon and Steve Smith all need to go. They are all incompetent. Neither one of them seem to know what they are doing. The blind is leading the blind and Karen Waldon is just country and not ready at all for a bug city. She is so unpolished. Atlanta Public Schools deserves a competent permenant professional superintendent now. Davis and his team need to be dismissed immediately!!!
Private Citizen
December 6th, 2012
10:05 am
The difference between rich people and poor people is that a rich person does not lose your telephone number. For me, this is probably the #1 difference in dealing with rich people and poor people. Poor people tend to have a disorganised “hot mess” when it comes to things like phone numbers and email. This means it takes a week or a month to do something that should get done in a day. It is highly distracting to try and communicate with someone that has a high level of disorganisation with telephone and email.
skipper
December 6th, 2012
3:06 pm
@Top School,
Sounds like racism works both ways………..we see just what a wonderful job the present APS Board has done………..
Top School
December 7th, 2012
2:48 am
The minorities on the APS board and those turning a blind eye to the corruption are the sell outs for their position at the Buckhead table. They are the worst of racists…as they watch their own race suffer the consequences of speaking up without supporting their efforts to speak the truth.
It takes numbers to stand up…and most minorities on the board have their head shoved up Buckhead’s rear end trying to keep their political position and feeding their ego. These minorities made it in the Buckhead Plantation House. They are not willing to sacrifice their position to stand alone to do the RIGHT THING.
Most of the minorities in positions of power in Atlanta have been selling out for years. That’s why their children have a slot in the white Northside BUCKHEAD SCHOOLS. And they keep their mouth’s shut…in exchange.
As does … BEVERLY HALL…if she spoke the truth…it would EXPOSE the Buckhead business communities involvement in the corruption.
She keeps her mouth shut…as BUCKHEAD protects her in exchange.
Carlos
December 7th, 2012
12:07 pm
I’m concerned that comments that “Errol Davis is an anti-white racist” are appearing so frequently.
On the one hand, he seems to have made some administrative decisions concerning NAPS when he was angry that were premature, to say the least. On the other, he had much to be angry about. My guess is that he just “lost it” when he saw the graduation rate of African American students who did not live in Buckhead. Those low rates are unacceptable. The city cannot afford the long term human and economic consequences of school performance that bad.
What I’ve heard about NAHS is that, regardless of race, students from Buckhead were well treated. Students from elsewhere didn’t get the same resources. This may or may not be true; but we need some forensic work done to find out, followed by an evaluation of whether the school gets enough resources, period.
Let’s get back to finding and evaluating facts, rather than making inflammatory attacks. These are just not helpful.
Midtown parent
December 8th, 2012
7:45 am
Carlos is exactly right. We need a forensic analysis of what is happening at NAHS. Were administrators forcing students into various SLCs or were students and parents voluntarily choosing their SLC? Where did the students that were underperfroming come from – Sutton or one of the many underperforming middle schools on the southside? Reuben McDaniel’s simplistic approach is almost childish and shows a complete lack of understanding about what “institutional racism.” Just because he’s black doesn’t mean he is the sole arbiter of racism.
20/20
December 8th, 2012
10:21 am
Believe me Karen Waldon is just evil and she has no class. I can say Kathy Augustine was very articulate and could represent Dr. Hall on any given day. Karen Waldon couldn’t represent my puppy on any given day and if one has noticed she isn’t seen or heard from publicly either.
20/20
December 8th, 2012
10:42 am
If Davis stays more negatives will surface about his true lack of character and integrity as well as his leadership team cause the public in general has lost all trust and confidence in him as a leader. Notice how he appeared at the Finch Elementary news conference. He could bearly look into the camera for fear of telling another great lie while throwing another APS employee under the bus such as the maintence men. He could hardly talk about them not coming forward about services when he himself stood up at the NAHS gym and lied to everyone present that the state would take over the school. So let Davis stay and let the revelation games began. His life will be a living hell with the daily investigations. Let’s start now…..How many active lawsuits are in progress against Erroll Davis and APS by employees past and present that taxpayers will fund????? Can someone get that information?
Third World
December 8th, 2012
3:49 pm
Erroll Davis and has administrative team are untrustworthy and Ms. Meister is on point at this juncture and the rest of the board and community needs to get behind her to stand our ground. This Davis administration is looking a lot like the previous Hall administration with all of the mistreatment of staff and lying. Integrity and trust is very important and Davis and crew have neither at this point.Davis can return to retirement where he should have never left for a job as important and taxing as APS CEO. We need the search to begin immediately for a permenant professional superintendent. No more corporate rejects without education experience sent by Deal/Chamber of Commerce or Broad Foundation alumni. We also need some real caring professionals to prepare to seek school board vacant seats in 2014,
Tired!
December 8th, 2012
8:25 pm
Okay. I have been hesitant about saying anything on this blog for fear of retaliation from APS. But I have had it. I am a principal at APS and have had the worst experience at the past Principals’ Meeting, held December 6th. It was focused on the Pyramid of Interventions; a document dated from 2006 which still had Kathy Cox’s name on it, was used as the major portion of the training session. This session was led by Linda Anderson and John O’Connor (both hired by Karen Waldon, Deputy Superintendent of Curriculum & Instruction). The training was PITIFUL; it did not have any new learning. In fact, we, as a district discussed RTI and the Pyramid of Interventions back in 2004. When principals asked REPEATEDLY for a formal DISTRICT-CREATED RTI plan, systematic processes, and clear guidelines for ensuring that we are all following the same protocols to support students in all schools…the response was “we will get there but first we have to know what you guys are doing”. So Anderson and O’Connor asked the principals to use valuable time away from their schools (keeping them from completing the state-mandated TKES evaluations) to read a 6 year old document and complete a pyramid of intervention chart in the auditorium of an APS middle school…yes, the auditorium… because you do great team work in an auditorium, right. Then after a series of ‘busy work’ activities (a KWL chart, think-pair-share, etc.), we had a break to recognize three retiring principals and one principal that took a job with TFA. We were entertained by a song…yes, a Christmas song (with some changed words) from an APS principal and then we ended with a slideshow presentation about leadership. I believe the intended reaction from the video was supposed to rouse enthusiasm and support…however, what was heard were crickets…nothing…not one clap, not one cheer…NOTHING. This speaks volumes!!!! Everyone in the room is tired…tired of being told to be quiet and take it…tired of hearing a lot of jargon from people that do not care. It is a sad day in APS. I am afraid that if the current administration remains it will spell catastrophe for our students!
Pride and Joy
December 9th, 2012
2:24 pm
Ivan, I would love to believe you. How do you know that “the cheaters are gone?”
How do you know that every teacher who cheater and everyone who allowed it is gone from that school?
Pride and Joy
December 9th, 2012
2:26 pm
Private Citizen, there is always the U.S. post office mail and a note home in the book bag. Communication does nto have to include phone calls and emails.
Molly
December 10th, 2012
4:25 am
The APS School board is expected to vote on Superintendent Errol Davis’ Contract this afternoon at 3:00. If you’d like to see a new Super for a Brighter Future, please sign this petition and share – http://www.change.org/petitions/aps-we-need-a-new-super-for-a-brighter-future-vote-for-better-leadership-and-let-superintendent-davis-contract-expire-without-renewal?utm_campaign=petition_created&utm_medium=email&utm_source=guides