Heneghan’s Dunwoody Blog: DCSS Board Size, Self Preservation and finalists for DeKalb superintendent

Bills in the GA Legislature are known to start as one thing and finish as another. When the DeKalb Delegation can not come to support the recommendations of SACS the accrediting agency on possibly reducing the size of the DeKalb Board of Education as "local legislation"; other options will be found. Watch what will happen to SB 79 (which has already passed the Senate) in the coming days as Rep Jacobs mentions in a comment on the DeKalb School Watch Blog.

Quote of Rep Mike Jacobs on DeKalb School Watch Blog

Senator Millar and I have worked with the House Education Committee and Mary Margaret Oliver to amend Senate Bill 79 to shrink the DeKalb BOE to seven members as a matter of general statewide law. The bill passed full committee this afternoon and is now in the House Rules Committee. The bill also addresses problems in Savannah-Chatham County and the Atlanta Public Schools.

DeKalb School Watch article on Board Self Preservation

Favorite quote from DeKalb School Watch Blog regarding Board size: "This isn’t an academic gap problem. This is a political crap problem. And until you deal with the political crap problem, which is identifying the right person for the right time, you won’t solve the achievement gap problem."

Members of the DeKalb County School Board were advised to stop playing politics, stop running for office continually and oversee the business of the school system. Within days of that advice, our school board members apparently met, though without the public notice or openness required by the GA Open Meetings Act, and decided to advocate to protect their own positions regardless of whether it is in the best interest of the students of DeKalb County or not.