Here are the legal arguments for why govenor can’t oust DeKalb school board. Are you swayed?
I attended the three-hour federal court hearing Friday in which the attorney for the DeKalb school board challenged the constitutionality of the state law that Gov. Deal used to suspend six school board members this week.
DeKalb County schools were placed on probation by the accreditation agency SACS in December. In response to that probation and because of cited problems with how the school board operates, Gov. Nathan Deal moved to suspend six of the nine members, as the State Board of Education had recommended after a grueling 14-hour hearing on Feb. 21. He relied on a law that went into effect in the spring of 2011.
The DeKalb board filed suit to block the removals, arguing that the law is illegal and full of inconsistencies. Former DA Bob Wilson contended that the law was contradictory, flawed and unfair to those snagged by it. “You have a sense people are flying by the seat of their pants to figure this out,” said Wilson.
The question is whether those flaws are lethal or whether an appeals process built into the law mitigates some of them.
The law is already under siege by six suspended Sumter County school board members, who retain their seats while their court case awaits a hearing.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Story — impressive in his comments about how seriously he takes this case and how he spent eight hours the night before reading documents submitted by Wilson — is attempting to move decisively so DeKalb schools are not stuck in limbo. But Story said he wants to be thorough.
Story said he will decide this case on the legal merits of the law rather than on the accusations against the DeKalb school board by its accrediting agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
“I don’t expect this to be a terribly exciting hearing. My responsibility is to determine whether the constitution of the United States or the state of Georgia is being violated,” he said. “I understand the impact my decision can have on a multitude of children. Let me assure you that I am going to give this the time it needs.”
The hearing was a battle of Decatur legal titans as both Wilson and the attorney representing the state, assistant attorney general Stefan Ritter, live within blocks of each other.
Wilson argued that the board members were treated as a group under the law and there was no clear sense of what they had done wrong, no access to the unnamed sources quoted in the SACs report and no identified standards under which the State Board of Education judged them as wanting.
Ritter countered that the law offers due process to the six suspended board members becasue there is an appeals process under which they can ask the governor for their jobs back. He also argued that there has been no irreparable harm to the six, who, under the law, continue to be paid.
The audience for the hearing was mostly press and attorneys, including three lawyers from DeKalb’s general counsel and two from the state Department of Education. But there was one blast from the past, former DeKalb CEO Vernon Jones, who sat behind me.
I heard Jones debate the lawsuit with two DeKalb mothers sitting next to him. He told the women that the law “overturned the will of the people.”
The only testimony came from Bonnie Holliday, who now heads the Charter Schools Commission but testified in her prior capacity as the head of the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement.
She gave a basic primer on accreditation and why it is important, explaining that a loss of accreditation undermines the ability of high school students to get into colleges and earn scholarships.
(My view: It doesn’t make sense for college admissions and scholarships to be casualties of an accreditation loss since accreditation status in Georgia has little to do with a system’s academic performance. It focuses solely on how smoothly and effectively the school board operates.)
Wilson noted that SACS didn’t even consider academics when it reviewed DeKalb’s status. He cited the standards in the SACS report.
“None of those standards addresses academic achievement,” Wilson told Holliday. In fact, Wilson, one of two investigators appointed by Gov. Perdue to lead the statewide probe of CRCT cheating, pointed out that DeKalb saw greater gains last year on the CRCT than the state average and showed improvement in 24 of 30 areas.
That may be, said Holliday, but her own quick review of DeKalb’s data showed neither significant improvements nor decline in scores over the last five years.
Here is a summation of the problems that Wilson and his associate Stephen G. Quinn cited in the law. Please note that these are not my contentions. This is a summary of the attorney presentations:
Under the constitution, it’s the citizens who live in a county who have the right to choose who is going to represent them on the school board. Local control is a paramount principle in k-12 education.
Board members have constitutional status. The state constitution guarantees an elected local school board. There are three ways a school board member can be removed under the constitution.
1. Recall for malfeasance, which is an ethical or legal violation. 2. A felony indictment for a malfeasance related to their office. 3. Conviction of any felony.
While the constitution allows the state to provide for additional qualifications for office, it does not allow for additional causes to remove school board members. And those qualifications are usually practical matters of residency, citizenship, age and education.
The legislative branch, the General Assembly, cannot hand a power, removing the school board, over to the executive branch, the governor.
The six members suspended were elected by margins of 51 to 74 percent by DeKalb voters.
It is a privilege of citizenship to be able to vote, run for office and hold office. Taking any of those privileges away requires due process, which was denied to the DeKalb board.
By using SACS probation as a trigger under which the governor can then oust a school board, the state has given a private, unregulated and unelected agency great power. “There is no oversight except their own,” said Wilson. “They make the rules of their game. I am not sure anywhere else in the law — federal or state — so much power is delegated to an unregulated private agency outside government.”
The state Board of Education, in its 14 hour hearing on whether to recommend suspension, had no clear standards by which to decide whether the DeKalb board had, in fact, done something wrong. Each state board member applied her or his own standards. And they debated for only a few minutes before they voted. Only four board members spoke about why they wanted to suspend and each offered a different rationale.
“The hearing officer never gave any instructions on the standard that had to be met,” said Wilson. “What are the rules? Nobody told me.”
The burden was supposed to be on the state to show why the six members ought to be suspended, but Wilson said, “With all due respect to the state, it’s hogwash.”
One of the inconsistencies in the law that Wilson cited is one we’ve discussed here: The law calls for the removal of all board members, which the state stressed at a hearing in January. The governor must remove all the DeKalb board members or none, stressed the state attorney at the January state board meeting.
Yet, the state opened the Feb, 21 hearing by announcing that the three newly elected members were off the hook. In its rebuttal to Wilson, Ritter did not get into the sudden reversal on that point, only saying it was “a gift to their side” that the three newly elected members were not losing their seats.
“All this is saying is that something is getting lost in the process and it’s due process,” said Wilson.
Wilson also hammered the lack of details in the SACS report, noting that allegations against the board came from unnamed sources and that SACS does not keep the notes from its review team interviews. “We did not get a chance to confront witnesses,” said Wilson.
Anticipating the state’s rejoinder that DeKalb board members had 14 hours before the state board to make their case, Wilson said, “Just because you were there for a long time doesn’t mean it was done right.”
Wilson also blasted SACS for the misinformation in its report, including the contention that DeKalb could not account for $12 million in textbooks and that many schools lacked Internet. DeKalb, he said, “has been beat up pretty badly on wrong facts from SACS.”
He criticized the head of SACS, Mark Elgart, for denying that the SACS review relied on hearsay. “He’s too smart to say that, but he did,” said Wilson. He noted that he got Elgart to admit during the Feb. 21 hearing that SACS had no records, tapes or videos of the interviews of witnesses who made allegations against the board, thus denying Wilson the opportunity to question the statements.
“He has no records. There is no way we could do it,” said Wilson.
And he questioned the “en masse” approach of the law, which he charges paints the entire board with the same brush. He noted that the state board didn’t even ask three of the six members about any wrongdoing.
But Ritter countered that it was appropriate to treat the board as a group in assessing their governance record because “the actions of the board reach all.”
Through the appeals process, Ritter said, “They will have another day in court. They got a process and they are going to get more if they want it.”
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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
155 comments Add your comment
Centrist
March 2nd, 2013
4:32 pm
John Trotter posted “Mr. Centrist (you really sound more like Mr. Rightest)”.
The right won’t have me. I have been a union member, am mildly pro-choice, a secular humanist, and have no problem with a “fairness” Buffet rule for another tax bracket and higher capital gains on those making over $ million/year.
But I do have a problem with a public union organizer who has a chip on his shoulder for all of management and readily admits he will “aggressively” fight them.
ColonelJack
March 2nd, 2013
4:39 pm
Dr. Trotter .. my deepest condolences on your loss.
home-tutoring parent
March 2nd, 2013
4:40 pm
School-board-member selection methods may warrant re-thinking. USG Regents aren’t popularly elected, they are appointed by the governor. This model is found across America for tertiary public education. The highest-education-level institutions utilizing democratic election for board members were (and are) junior colleges, which were primarily post-high school vocational schools, and “bridge-to-university” schools for kids who had deficiencies leaving high school (that made direct matriculation to university “too difficult” a proposition).
How many people here believe that USG’s governance would be improved by popular election of Regents?
The reasons Regents are appointed are that the general populace isn’t sufficiently knowledgeable about higher-education matters to competently select representatives in an unbiased, non-politically-charged manner, and the Governor’s appointments have done a commendable job since the 19th century.
Perhaps we need to go to a system of appointing school boards. Why? In the old days, when popular election of school board members was proposed and implemented, school board candidates were selected by community leaders, to serve local community needs.
I’m not going to belabor whether or not this optimally served all families’ interests, but I must nevertheless emphasize this fact: an 8th grade education was considered sufficient for most productive roles, including farming and ranching, most industrial mid-level-management jobs, and small business ownership. College was only perceived by a small segment of the populace to be “valuable” or “essential”.
Today, economists and public-policy leaders tell us that the majority of kids should attend college. Both State and Federal governments issue a bewildering array of “standards”, “guidelines” and “regulations”, NCLB having gone so far as to establish mass-testing “performance” metrics for all of America, with contrived measures of Annual Yearly Progress.
If the goal is to send most kids to college–and see them through to graduation–it would make sense to ensure that school districts’ boards are qualified, as leaders, to reach these goals.
For example, superintendents and principals aren’t popularly elected. They’re appointed by school boards (superintendents), and the superintendents appoint principals. But if the “appointers” aren’t actually academically-knowledgeable, but are really ordinary “politicians”, how can they be expected to appoint qualified operations managers? They hire private-for-profit consultants to present them with slates of “qualified” superintendent hires, along with “best candidate” recommendations. After hiring, most last on the job for less than 3 years. Time for a new supe search. [Let's do the same thing over and over again, and expect a different result.]
This is not a sound way to govern any organization, much less an extremely complex billion-dollar-a-year one.
Like2Hike
March 2nd, 2013
4:52 pm
@Dr Trotter: Sorry to hear about the loss of your father. I remember playing YMCA basketball against your brother and Dan Kirkland in the annual state YMCA basketball tournament. Your brother was a fierce competitor and Kirkland was a great offensive player (I came off the bench to just guard him one time – fairly successfully). I moved from Columbus to Albany in 1958 after 2nd grade. If I had stayed I probably would have played basketball with your Dad as well. I also spent 31 years in Clayton County Schools.
Dekalbite@Maureen
March 2nd, 2013
4:57 pm
I “have yet to see any real research that school boards are critical factors — either helping or hindering — academics. I am sure school boards play a role, but I wonder about the extent of that role.”
Since the Board raised class sizes to 40, cut teacher compensation to the lowest in the metro area, funded ALL science equipment and supplies at $55,000 for 100,000 students (that’s 50 cents per child per year for science equipment and supplies) while protecting the salaries and jobs for non teaching employees, you might want to ask some DeKalb students and teachers if this has had an impact on student achievement.
There’s actually some good research out there. Here is an interesting link:
http://www.centerforpubliceducation.org/Main-Menu/Public-education/Eight-characteristics-of-effective-school-boards/Eight-characteristics-of-effective-school-boards.html
Meanwhile, as an analogy, ask yourself if the financail and personnel cuts the AJC owners and management have made the last decade have affected the quantity and quality of your newspaper. The AJC has grammar and spelling errors unheard of in the 1990s. The pieces are not nearly as well researched or well written as they were. I’ve been subscribing to and reading the AJC for 30 years, and there is a very big difference. Of course you can argue that the entire print industry is under siege, but what if your managers were rewarding themselves and their relatives while they continually cut the salary of the reporters and editors? Would this upgrade or degrade the quality of the AJC’s journalistic efforts?
This in essence is what really dysfunctional Boards do. They make bad financial decisions that result in less resources going to the classroom. Does anyone seriously believe an AP teacher with 40 students in his AP class is just as effective as one that has 15? Does a child behind in reading get the same individual attention if his teacher is teaching 35 students versus 25?
Management matters in all organizations. That’s why they call them managers. This Board has set allofthe the policies, procedures and practices for the students and teachers. They have approved every nickel of expenditures. Why would this not have an impact? Why would they to be held accountable?
Mary Elizabeth
March 2nd, 2013
4:57 pm
To Dr. John Trotter,
My condolences to you, and to your family, upon the death of your outstanding father. It is obvious that he was an inspiration in your life and in the lives of many others.
Rick L in ATL
March 2nd, 2013
5:09 pm
@Dekalbite–an excellent argument. And, Maureen, what if the AJC’s publisher and editorial page editor were both indicted on criminal charges like CLew and Pat Pope? Might you then think the AJC was in less than the very best of hands, and that its leadership did, after all, matter a lot?
You can moan about this turning racial all you want–the parents of DKSS didn’t make it a race issue. It’s Walker and his new besties from the NAACP and his new very best friend Vernon who are now getting all, like, whoa, wait a minute–how DARE you try to take from us our “right” to vote strictly along racial lines for the brothas who will turn on the money spigot for our friends and families? How dare you!
Look, white people have their own VERY long roster of voting catastrophes: any race capable of electing a Newt Gingrich or a Nancy Pelosi or a (list continues for hundreds more names; shortened here for the sake of brevity) has its own issues. But here’s the difference: I won’t vote for a fool who’s of my race just because, and solely because, he’s of my race when a better person is on the ballot. That distinguishes me from the Vernon Jones’s of the world, and from (it appears) a majority of the voters of DeKalb Co.
A racist agenda stinks no matter which race is trying to pull it off.
bootney farnsworth
March 2nd, 2013
5:12 pm
@ Dr John
so very sorry to hear of your loss. thoughts and prayers for you and your family.
td
March 2nd, 2013
5:12 pm
I bet these parents on here would not be defending this board if they are reinstated by the court, SACS takes away their accreditation and there children are not able to get into a college.
Well folks, that is exactly what is going to happen (because I believe the law is unconstitutional) and guess whose fault it is? That is right, the voters of Dekalb county. If you (the voters) would rather keep your heads in the sand for YEARS and keep putting the same unqualified people back into office election after election then you are going to suffer the consequences of your actions. Elections have consequences and in this case the students of Dekalb county are going to be suffering the consequences of their parents actions.
Concernedmom30329
March 2nd, 2013
5:15 pm
@Maureen said “I have had school chiefs tell me that part of their jobs is to “contain” the board and keep its impact minimal. We spend a lot of time on school boards when the evidence seems stronger that school-based leadership is the pivotal factor.”
This is exactly the problem in DeKalb, but for the last 12 or so years, the DeKalb BoE has run off one strong superintendent and has subsequently hired weak and incompetent ones. Thus, they meddle. Cunningham has meddled incessantly at MLK High School and then his wife has the audacity to go on TV and show up at board meetings to complain about principal turnover. Copelin-Woods has done the same across her district leading to really poor school based leadership.
Heck, I have seen it happen with board members across the county for at least a decade, North, South, East and West. Womack traded his soul to Crawford Lewis to pick the principal at Lakeside High School.
Maureen, Do you think these hijinks go on in Gwinnett, Fulton, Decatur City and Cobb?
bootney farnsworth
March 2nd, 2013
5:15 pm
@ maureen
you’re smarter than this. you have your agenda, and that’s fine. but to claim you don’t know why race is an issue here – with the NAACP getting involved, and Gene’s lynching comments – is
at the very least disingenuous to out right hyprocritical.
Maureen Downey
March 2nd, 2013
5:19 pm
@bootney, You miss my point. I understand their involvement — my point is that objections to this law are not unique to African-American school board members. A predominantly white board in the same situation would sue. From the day this law passed, attorneys warned that it was ripe for challenge. Posters seem to suggest that DeKalb is suing because it’s a predominantly African-American board. That is hooey. No politician wants to give up power.
Maureen
bootney farnsworth
March 2nd, 2013
5:23 pm
as to the arguements presented….
while sounding good on the surface, there are some major counterpoints
-elected or not, politicans to do have the right to violate the law with impunity. nor do the citizens of DeKalb have the “right” to elect people who will deliberately misuse and abuse the funds provided by the state of Georgia
-at every level of government, constitutionally approved mechanism exist to remove a elected offical who abuses the power and responsibility of their office. a corrupt school board is no different
Maureen Downey
March 2nd, 2013
5:23 pm
@Concerned, I think they go on everywhere. I chatted with a lawyer the other day who has represented school boards around the state and he said these behaviors are not unusual. If you want to see nepotism, check out some rural districts. It doesn’t mean these behaviors are right. For decades, nobody paid much attention to school boards or to the hiring of cousins, uncles and nieces. In the first few newspapers where I worked, no one wanted to cover schools. It was considered the most lackluster beat. Now, we are more cognizant of the importance of schools and the size of school budgets.
As for the counties you mentioned, Gwinnett has the opposite situation — a school board that goes along with the school chief on everything he wants. That works with the right school chief. It could be a different story with the wrong one.
Maureen
mountain man
March 2nd, 2013
5:25 pm
“my point is that objections to this law are not unique to African-American school board members. A predominantly white board in the same situation would sue”
Maybe. maybe not. In 1999, SACS put Cherokee County on probation over the actions of ONE Board member. The action of the community was to start the recall process which resulted in his resignation. Where is that sort of action in Dekalb? Do the parents just not care down there? Dekalb is MUCH worse than Cherokee ever was.
mountain man
March 2nd, 2013
5:26 pm
Dr. John Trotter – my condolences on the death of your father. We just lost my mother some time ago and I know how hard it can be.
Concernedmom30329
March 2nd, 2013
5:31 pm
From conversations with uber involved parents in other systems, admittedly not rural ones, I think what happens in DeKalb is far worse. It is worse because the school board intentionally hires weak superintendents to manipulate or try to manipulate. Do you see a school board member in city of Decatur demanding that someone be appointed principal of Oakhurst?
By the way, Miller County’s Board of Ed didn’t sue.
Centrist
March 2nd, 2013
5:31 pm
Whether you agree or not that SACS concentrates too much on the BoE’s in school districts they put on probation, does anyone think if the current Dekalb Board is not reorganized DCSS will lose its accreditation? You’d think that alone would matter.
John Trotter should thank me for possibly steering radical teachers who view this blog toward (in his words) “kick-ass teachers union – everyone knows that the most aggressive and feared teachers union by far” @ $44/month dues.
mountain man
March 2nd, 2013
5:37 pm
“does anyone think if the current Dekalb Board is not reorganized DCSS will lose its accreditation? – ”
Of course it will. Leopards do not change their spots. The offending BOE members will continue to do exactly the things that got them into hot water with SACS. Do you really epect that Walker will allow the Superintendent to fire his relatives?
bootney farnsworth
March 2nd, 2013
5:37 pm
@ maureen
from that view, I sorta agree. but only to a point.
no politican of any color, race, gender, orientation, ect worth their salt will give up power, and they do have the right to take this to court to seek redress -not on our dime, however.
and its downright silly to think a mostly black county will sue mostly the mostly black board for being black.
but I do understand where the frustration and implications come from. Gene was the one who used the term lynching – a strong code word for racial injustice (yes, Clarence Thomas did it to, and it was wrong then as well) which is guarenteed to generate harsh and racially charged responses.
its rude, its immature, its inflammatory, and its frankly stupid and denigrates the suffering of those who actually where victims of lyching.
and for the NAACP to get involved, after this long silence during which mostly black kids were being damaged by this ineffective and corrupt board is downright disgusting. where were they when corruption and nepotism were robbing black kids of the education and educational system they deserve?
IMO there is a strong racial angle to this. this is Atlanta where some people get racially offended by the term black ice. but in the situtation you outlined above, I agree.
bootney farnsworth
March 2nd, 2013
5:40 pm
@centrist
yup, sure do. SACS has put its rep on the line. even if Jesus Himself returned and fixed everything,
if the board were left in place SACS would ring it up.
mountain man
March 2nd, 2013
5:43 pm
I am still waiting for someone to answer a question I asked several days ago. It is illegal for school systems to run a deficit, and I understand they have no borrowing authority. So when DCSS ran a $14 million deficit last year, how did they continue to pay salaries and keep the utilities on when they ran out of money? Then I hear they are paying back the deficit over the next four years, which means they are running four MORE years of illegal deficit budgets. Can we not file charges against any Board member who votes to accept these illegal budgets?
td
March 2nd, 2013
5:45 pm
bootney farnsworth
March 2nd, 2013
5:40 pm
@centrist
yup, sure do. SACS has put its rep on the line. even if Jesus Himself returned and fixed everything,
if the board were left in place SACS would ring it up.
Yep and the children of the parents that placed this board into office election after election will have the bare the brunt of the consequences for their parents actions.
bootney farnsworth
March 2nd, 2013
5:46 pm
at this point, frankly, all we can hope to do is learn from this and move forward
-create a statewide standard for serving on the BOE.
-establish criteria – and a system- for impeaching rogue BOE systems or members
Dekalbite@Mountain man
March 2nd, 2013
5:47 pm
There would have to be 4 recall movements, not one. Recall is extremely difficult in Georgia. – bet elected politicians saw to that one. More people must participate in the recall than it took to elect the politicians. By the time the recall was over, the election next summer 2014 will be here. A year is nothing to an adult, but it’s a long time in young children’s lives.
Maureen Downey
March 2nd, 2013
5:53 pm
@mountain, The state DOE official testified to this at the hearing and said DeKalb was one of 10 to 15 districts in this predicament and that they all had to submit corrective plans, which DeKalb is doing.
Maureen
Dr. John Trotter
March 2nd, 2013
6:08 pm
Thanks, bootney, Mountain Man, Mary Elizabeth, Like2Hike, and others for expressing kind words about my father. He was indeed a man. My brother knocked a homerun on doing a tribute for our family. I couldn’t have delivered a tribute. Too emotional. He almost broke down himself on a couple of occasions but he kept it light and had the packed out crowd laughing big time! Of course, I was the butt of many of the jokes and family folklore. I was, to quote my brother, “naturally ornery” and received the most spankings! Rep. Darryl Jordan, like a brother to me, said to me, “John, I finally found someone who can out-talk you…your brother!” He was really good.
The crowd who came to the wake the night before was probably even much larger than the crowd for the funeral itself. @ Like2Hike, there were several old basketball players from Daddy’s YMCA basketball teams which won many, many State Championship. (He coached us in Little League baseball, Pop Warner football, and YMCA basketball when he stopped coaching high school ball and became an administrator.) If we were winning too badly, he would not let us rebound until the other team shot at least three times. If anyone knows Dan Kirkland, you know how that went over with him! He was as fierce of a competitor in basketball as I have even seen. He told me that his father was the tallest man in the SEC (also captained UGA’s team in the mid-1930s and was UGA’s first player to receiver basketball scholarship). He played in the pre-NBA professional basketball league for the Chattanooga Lookouts. But, “Little Dan” (as we called Kirkland) was a forward…the shortest forward in the SEC. Auburn won the recruiting battle over Kentucky and Georgia. By the way, Kirkland had to leave before the funeral began. He knew emotionally that he couldn’t handle the funeral. My father had that kind of impact on others. Mr. Haynes and several people associated with MACE knew my father and were at the funeral, but from all of the stories that were told, Norreese said: “Now I know where you get all of your stuff!” My reply? I have stolen it all from my father. I just embellish what I watched him do and say my entire life. His ways work.
Here’s a link to front page article on the Metro section that the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer did on my father the day after he died. One of the big shots at the newspaper told one of my family members that she wouldn’t be where she is today if Daniel D. Trotter hadn’t made her the editor of the school yearbook.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/ledger-enquirer/obituary.aspx?n=daniel-d-trotter&pid=163338833&fhid=5117#fbLoggedOut
Centrist
March 2nd, 2013
6:10 pm
td posted “the children of the parents that placed this board into office election after election will have the bare the brunt of the consequences for their parents actions.”
What about the parents (and children) who didn’t vote for these unqualified panderers? How about the homeowners’ without children who will lose property value?
Ms. Downey posted “submit corrective plans, which DeKalb is doing”. Are you serious? Actions (and non-actions) speak much more than some lawyerly worded, too little/ too late corrective plan. The bulk of the Board has to resign or their removal upheld to possibly avoid DCSS losing its accreditation.
Maude
March 2nd, 2013
6:28 pm
While I believe that everyone should have their rights I look at 6 ADULTS that did not do the job they were elected to do and I look at 99K CHILDREN who did nothing wrong. I’m sorry but 99K CHILDREN win over the 6 ADULTS everytime.
Dr. John Trotter
March 2nd, 2013
6:28 pm
Two things about the SACS situation: (1) Georgia has another accrediting agency which has been accrediting schools since 1904 in Georgia and has just as much of the Georgia Law behind it as does SACS. It is the Georgia Accrediting Commission (GAC). It goes around quietly accrediting the schools without a lot of fanfare that is exhibited by Mark Elgart and SACS who and which tend to be dramatic. controlling, and megalomaniacal. Dr. Carvin L. Brown is the Executive Director of GAC, and Dr. Brown is well-known and well-respected in the Georgia educational community. (2) If Georgia wants to, it can simply accredit its own schools. No big deal. Just set up the Georgia Schools Accrediting Agency (GSAA) within the Georgia Department of Education which is headed up by a statewide-elected State Superintendent, Dr. John Barge (or whoever is elected at the time). He could even use school personnel in Georgia to visit the schools. Heck, this is what SACS does. SACS uses the school personnel in the schools to visit the other school systems. I served (pre-Mark Elgart) on several Five-Year SACS Studies. Folks, it’s really just a song-and-pony show. All folks in education really know this.
Mark Elgart is like the man behind the machine in the Wizard of Oz. He only has power because the State of Georgia foolishly gave him power. You don’t really have to have the SACS rubber stamp of approval on your school for your kid to enter into Duke or Yale or Kennesaw State. If your kid has the SAT scores and the grades, she or he will get in.
If you think that there are some substantive due process issues going on with this case before Judge Story, just think what would really happen if SACS actually DID (which it WON’T) keep a school system off accreditation long enough that the Hope Scholarship would not kick in. This is a law which will not be tested because NO ONE IS THAT STUPID. Ha! Denying a kid the Hope Scholarship who has scored high on the SAT and earned good grades because SACS doesn’t think that the adults on the school board are “playing nice” would be unconscionable. Mark Elgart ain’t that stupid, folks. If he actually crossed this line, then then hell hath no fury like the anger that will come out of DeKalb! Don’t worry…it ain’t going to happen. If accreditation is stripped, the kids will be taken care of…just like they were in Clayton. Accreditation was given back before the school year closed out.
Maude
March 2nd, 2013
6:30 pm
Dr. Trotter while most of the time I do not agree with your views I do have you and your family in my prayers. Sorry for your great loss.
Ella
March 2nd, 2013
6:37 pm
I disagree that:
Mr. Wilson hit the nail directly on the head.
Local school boards are indeed constitutional entities whose members serve at the will of the local electorate. The authority to remove elected officials over performance issues lies with voters, not the General Assembly.
Judge Story made it very clear to Wilson that the school system could not have it both ways. He said the school system could not align themselves with the state which is responsible for educating the students of the state, so they are not liable in court cases (which the DCSB has done over and over) and then come into federal court and indicate something oposite. He said the school board could not have it both ways. It does not work that way.
td
March 2nd, 2013
6:50 pm
Centrist
March 2nd, 2013
6:10 pm
td posted “the children of the parents that placed this board into office election after election will have the bare the brunt of the consequences for their parents actions.”
“What about the parents (and children) who didn’t vote for these unqualified panderers? How about the homeowners’ without children who will lose property value?”
I do not see another choice at this point because I really think the law will be found unconstitutional.
According to the article these people were elected by very large majority of the votes. Part of me feels sorry for the people that did not vote this board into office but that is the prize that they will have to pay for choosing to live in a county controlled by the incompetent and for not fighting hard enough for all these years for not changing things.
It is the same price that we are all going to have to pay one day for allowing our national leaders to get out of control and electing the ones that will do our children and greandchildren the most harm. .
home-tutoring parent
March 2nd, 2013
6:52 pm
Dr. Trotter, I’m not sad to read about your father’s passing. I didn’t know him. You miss him, people whose lives he touched miss him. He lived a generous, demanding-his-pupils-do-their-best, self-discipline-inspiring life.
Earth-death was unavoidable. But Earth-death is not Oblivion. He left people who will hand down the lessons they learned from him, for generations. And he will keep working, freed of his mortal coil, in a realm we don’t understand.
home-tutoring parent
March 2nd, 2013
7:12 pm
I loved the story about giving lesser teams three free rebounds. What a Godly man! Give lesser men chances!John Wooden, used to preach, “If you’re ahead at half-time, play your best the whole game, and don’t give opponents a chance to get back into it and possibly beat you.” Different philosophies on playing roundball, both competitive, anyway, they went to heaven, and in arguments before God the Father and Jesus, your father may very well win.
The main problem I have with so-called “education” is, the class teaching educracy inculcates 50 minute lessons 36 weeks//year (not enough time), procrastinating on studies and assignments until “the last minute”, while coaches train students 3 hours/day, and have summer enrichment/advancement clinics, and people don’t even “get it”.
Dr. John Trotter
March 2nd, 2013
7:14 pm
You are right, home-tutoring-parent. Thank you.
Old timer
March 2nd, 2013
7:17 pm
Nothing changed my mind…only because someone has to step up…
Old timer
March 2nd, 2013
7:22 pm
Maureen, nepotism is worse in rural counties where the school board is the largest employer with the best pay and benefits…..when we lived in rural TN it was awful. The high school had 10 full time janitors…who did not do much and a full time yard crew to maintain the football and baseball fields. Each of the four guidence councilors had two assistance….and don’t get me started on the front office staff…..
home-tutoring parent
March 2nd, 2013
7:44 pm
But there is a connection. Dr. Trotter, your dad coached Y teams. Totally after school hours. Lots of kids today do club sports. Not limited by interscholastic seasons.
Lots of kids (mostly affluent, not all) send their kids to summer school enrichment (not remedial) academic programs. More time “on the court” (or in class) generates higher proficiency.
Dr. Trotter, are you a proponent of 180-day schools? Out of 365 days available, or even with Sundays off, and 6 weeks relaxation weeks off, 250 days? I love your posts, along with Mary Elizabeth’s, but I must conclude you two are missing major student-enlightenment opportunities.
Of course I worked until MN, and on weekends, when the grad students weren’t there. My RA said, “You can’t run the ultracentrifuge. You’re only an undergrad. One of my grad students ran an load, and the Beckmann blew up.”
I should have violated his restriction. Or taken him aside, and proved to him, “You can trust me.”
Instead, “I followed rule.” All my RA had to say was, “You can try it, but don’t destroy my machinery, or youre a deadman” or “Let me watch what you want to do. I’ll stop you if you make a mistake.”
Balancing tubes, it wasn’t that hard.
Dr. John Trotter
March 2nd, 2013
8:10 pm
Thank you, Maude.
@ home-tutoring-parent: Obviously, the way I grew up, I love afterschool enrichment programs such as the YMCA. I am reluctant to change the 180 day schedule because I don’t necessarily think more is better, especially if more is of the same. What we are doing now is ridiculous. Testing, testing, testing. Stupid, boring curriculum that both the students and teachers hate…a curriculum for factories, a curriculum that is shallow and the private schools refuse to use. We need to free up the teachers and allow them to be creative. Gotta run!
home-tutoring parent
March 2nd, 2013
8:16 pm
Thank you Dr. Trotter, I’ve read your blog, looks it has very thoughtful ideas. I really like removing the fed-state-district politician-dominated rulership chains from teachers. We could write a book, representing different ends of the spectrum, to enlighten enlighten some people.
i’m not into “education”. Elucidation, that I think I might be able to contribute to some kids, not to everybody. Mostly in math and science.
Fred in DeKalb
March 2nd, 2013
8:23 pm
Dr. Trotter, condolences to you and your family on the loss of your father. From what I’ve read about him, I would have loved to played on one of his teams. He will live on in those whose lives he touched.
You were one of the first people on this blog to question the constitutionality of the law to remove Board members. I recall you were chastised heavily for bringing that up. You mentioned that there seemed to be a mob mentality with respect to seeking others to remove this Board. Like many in DeKalb, I believe they have lost their ability to be effective as a collective Board and wish they would consider resigning rather that putting the community through this fractious trial process. I also believe as I mentioned a while back, that the law is unconstitutional.
I also recall you mentioning the behavior of the DeKalb Board is similar to that of many Boards around the state, current and past. I believe this Board is in the spotlight more because there are many throughout the community that complain without having all the facts. The textbook issue from the SACS report is an example, they did not interview the Deputy Superintendent of Instruction or CFO to validate the allegations. That was very telling.
Dekalbite acknowledged on the previous blog that Dr. Brown was actually addressing the growth in the Central office started under Freeman and Hallford. He was actually sending people from the Central office back to the school house. He also requested the Personnel and Salary Audit because he realized none existed for DeKalb. What do you thing happens to people that rocks the DeKalb boat? They found a way to get rid of him. Is it possible that Dr. Atkinson was also making some of the long overdue tough decisions? She got rid of the CFO responsible for misreporting the state of the finances. She also recoded positions that were incorrectly assigned to the Central Office. Maybe those same powers that got rid of Dr. Brown got to Dr. Atkinson also.
Did anyone know that the Cobb County BOE announced a budget deficit of over 80 million dollars? How about 13 other school districts in GA operating at a deficit? I hope the media brings stories like this to the attention of the public rather than focusing all their energies on DeKalb.
paulo977
March 2nd, 2013
8:25 pm
Dr. John Trotter sorry for your loss . You were fortunate to have such a role model
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z5BzmEKdKs
catlady
March 2nd, 2013
8:33 pm
If any school board deserved removal, this one does. But…
1) The current law gives SACS too much power, power it does not deserve to have, over the workings of a board. I trust SACS as far as I can throw it.
2) The governor has a history of use of power to reward inexperienced friends and family. As for trust, see number one, above.
3) No matter how idiotic the board members have been, they should be removed by either the voters or the police (for illegal or acts of malfeasance). That some of the voters must be crazy, well…
Recall of elected officials is so stacked against happening here in Georgia, it is almost impossible to accomplish. THAT should be changed. Perhaps Dekalb should be broken into smaller systems. Work on that angle. If something illegal has happened, pressure the DA/police to do their duty.
Shek
March 2nd, 2013
8:38 pm
While I appreciate the usual suspects’ comments on this blog, I believe most of you have thrown common sense out the window. The ship is sinking & you are arguing theories. there is a HUGE diff between hypotheticals & reality. This is why I lose patience with liberals. God save Dekalb & God bless America.
home-tutoring parent
March 2nd, 2013
8:43 pm
Dr. Trotter,
You are a thoughtful person. Nobody can read your blog and AJC posts without realizing this. I have a doctorate too. It’s an MD. I home-tutored my kids.
Mostly, it was a blast. I had human tragedies. Not too many. I remember this one time. I had to deliver a baby. Fawk this mom is bleeding out, I have to dig out her placental remnants to stop her bleeding, Do you think I didn’t tell her, you need to suckle your baby?
Of course I did. topping pst-partum hemmorhage, tell girls to suckle their babies, save stupid midnight rattlesnake hunters from bites, well of course I got to do that. With really good nurses . Totally hot girls. Way hot girls.
Shek
March 2nd, 2013
8:57 pm
Sorry to hear the loss of your father dr T. I lost my father when I was 3 years old here in dekalb and didn’t get to experience all the joys you have written.
catlady
March 2nd, 2013
8:58 pm
Dr. Trotter: I am very sorry to hear of your father’s passing. You have written about him a number of times before, and I almost felt like I knew him, or someone very like him. (My dad was captured at the Battle of the Bulge, was in an offlog for 3 months or so. Third Army. Built bridges for Patton. Those were tough men.) I hope your memories of his special qualities bring you comfort. I am sure he touched many.
Another comment
March 2nd, 2013
9:38 pm
Only a select few small Cities that had school districts in the 1950’s, are the only ones in this State who actually have local control. You only have local control of your school district, when the school district is no larger than one high school and its feeder schools. The school boards should be elected and set up as volunteer boards with requirements like condo boards, do no payments ( perhaps a per diem for meetings.). Requirements can be set for those who can run, no Felony’s, must have a Bachlors degree, must be various professionals from the community.
What we really need is one high school school districts. Not these bloated 100,000 or 40,000 student school districts. They just don’t work.
Fred in DeKalb
March 2nd, 2013
9:41 pm
Catlady, do you believe that ANY Board that has done the things this Board has should be suspended? It would be interesting to see a list of what they’ve done then compare it to other Boards around the state. I bet (As Dr. Trotter said once before), we’ll find out that many are doing or have done the same things.