Breaking news: With new federal ruling, DeKalb school leadership is now in legal limbo for time being
As we all expected, the DeKalb school board situation is getting messier. A federal judge is now saying that Gov. Deal can remove the six board members, but cannot replace them for the present.
Yikes.
It seems unlikely all the school members recommended for removal are going to drop their legal challenge to the state law allowing the governor to oust them over accreditation concerns.
If the DeKalb legal challenge follows the pace of a similar one filed by school board members in Sumter County, this could take months to resolve. Six Sumter school board members filed in December to halt state removal, but a court hearing has yet to be scheduled and they retain their seats.
DeKalb school board member Eugine Walker made it clear to the state Board of Education at its 14-hour hearing Thursday that he was not going to surrender his constitutional rights to seek redress in the courts if he was suspended from his elected post.
The AJC’s Ty Tagami reports that Walker said Sunday, ““I was elected by the people, but I work for God. I’m not going to surrender to a political lynching by a kangaroo court.”
U.S. District Judge Richard Story scheduled the federal hearing for 2:30 p.m. Friday. The Fulton Superior Court hearing before Judge Lee is 8:30 a.m. Thursday.
So, this situation now leaves DeKalb in limbo and prevents any real change to get under way.
A federal judge has issued an order that temporarily prevents Gov. Nathan Deal from replacing the DeKalb County school board members who were recommended for suspension by a state panel.
Judge Richard Story’s order refuses to restrain Deal from suspending the DeKalb board members, but enjoins implementation of any decision by the governor pending the outcome of a hearing Friday.
Deal previously called a news conference for 11 a.m. Monday to announce his response to a Georgia Board of Education recommendation Thursday to suspend six of nine DeKalb board members. That prompted DeKalb to file a last minute plea Friday for an order restraining the governor.
The judge’s order didn’t side clearly with either DeKalb or the governor, but it does give DeKalb some breathing room.
“If Governor Deal decides to appoint any new member to the board, that proposed member shall not be permitted to take office at this time,” said Story’s order, which was signed Friday and obtained Sunday by Channel 2 Action News. “Similarly, if Governor Deal decides to remove any current member of the board, that member will remain in office, but shall not be permitted to act on behalf of the board or take any other official action in his or her capacity as board member.”
The temporary order is in connection with a lawsuit DeKalb filed to stop the removal process. The suit, filed by the school district and former board chairman Eugene Walker against the Georgia Department of Education and Deal, contends that a 2011 state law allowing the ouster of elected local school boards is unconstitutional.
The law says the governor can suspend and ultimately remove any local school board that is recommended for suspension by the state education board because of risk to the local school district’s accreditation. The law authorizes the state to act only in districts that have been placed on “probation” by an accreditation authority.
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools placed DeKalb on probation in December, alleging a host of governance problems.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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258 comments Add your comment
Truth in Moderation
February 25th, 2013
12:51 pm
“Mr. Walker’s version of God is when you put your palms up toward the sky”
Which God do YOU serve?
Dan 5:1 Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.
Dan 5:2 Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.
Dan 5:3 Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them.
Dan 5:4 They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.
Dan 5:5 In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.
Private Citizen
February 25th, 2013
1:00 pm
Truth, Thank for the excellent lesson in the source of the phrase, “Seeing the writing on the wall.”
Maybe the judge is a party-weirdo. According to Moloko, I’m gonna ask the judge for a party crack down / A weirdo wack down. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XukR567isiw#t=2m3s
Private Citizen
February 25th, 2013
1:03 pm
correction: a party wack-down / A weirdo crack-down. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XukR567isiw#t=2m3s
bootney farnsworth
February 25th, 2013
1:08 pm
jason carter is a race pimp, just like his grandfather.
Mountain Man
February 25th, 2013
1:28 pm
“Removing the board as a whole – I think elected officials of all the various offices should be treated similarly (except judges – different standards). If we can remove the board as a whole, then we should be able to removed the legislature as a whole”
The new law deals with removing the Board as a whole. If a judge says you have to emove all nine, then do that. What would stop Deal from then re-appointing the three. I can see removing the entire legislature as a whole IF there was a law reqiring that and if the legislature was doing something illegal (not just unconstitutional) – such as voting to assassinate the President.
DeKalb Inside Out
February 25th, 2013
2:05 pm
Mountain Man
I’m not saying that removing the school board as a whole is against the law (it is not). The lawyer types are arguing that removing the board as a whole is unconstitutional. Something about Due Process.
Private Citizen
February 25th, 2013
3:10 pm
This process is due !
They’re out. Governor removes all six DeKalb school board members. Bring in the lawyers. | Get Schooled
February 25th, 2013
3:33 pm
[...] still be reversed as there are two court hearings this week on lawsuits filed by the school board. A federal judge has already said that Deal can suspend the six, as he just did, but he can’t name replacements, pending the outcome of a Friday court [...]