Georgia Board Delays Vote on Atlanta School Board

ATLANTA - The Georgia Board of Education delayed its vote on whether to remove members of the troubled Atlanta school board and recommended keeping the Coffee County school board in place during a meeting Tuesday.

The state board unanimously approved a consent order agreed to by the state Department of Education and Atlanta's school board that gives the local board more time to deal with the fallout from a recent state probe that revealed widespread cheating in nearly half of the district's 100 schools. The state board will hold a new hearing for Atlanta before Nov. 4.

The hearings are part of a state law that took effect July 1 permitting the goveor to remove members of local school boards if their districts are in danger of losing accreditation. Both districts are on probation with the Southe Association of Colleges and Schools.

State school board chairwoman Wanda Barrs said the Atlanta district has a "dire need for leadership" and removing its board could damage the progress the system has made in addressing a host of issues raised when it was put on probation by SACS. Those issues included appointing a new superintendent and halting bitter disputes between board members that ended up in court before being dismissed by a judge.

"Our greatest desire as a state board is to ensure that students in Coffee County and the Atlanta Public Schools, as well as all systems around our state, have exceptional leaing opportunities," Barrs said. "It is our firm belief that high functioning local boards of education and superintendent leadership teams are absolutely essential to the success of Georgia's public schools."

Interim Atlanta schools Superintendent Erroll Davis pleaded with the state board to keep the local school board in place to help him wade through termination hearings for more than 100 employees caught up in the cheating scandal.

"I need the support of this board if I am to accomplish what I am charged to accomplish going forward," said Davis, who took over as head of the 50,000-student system just a few days before the state's cheating probe was made public.

SACS, which accredits Atlanta's high schools, gave the district until Sept. 30 to repair its school board rift or lose accreditation completely. The board appears to have fixed some of its problems: A new chairwoman was elected and all members are supportive of Davis.

Coffee County schools got more of a final answer than Atlanta during Tuesday's hearing.

The state board voted unanimously to recommend to Gov. Nathan Deal that members not be ousted. Deal will decide on the state board's recommendation at a later date.

If Deal decides to remove any board members, he will appoint replacements.

"I agree with the Board of Education's decision to give APS and its new leadership additional time to show progress," Deal said in a prepared statement. "I'm confident that all involved are working actively to promote the needs of Atlanta's children and to keep the system's accreditation in place."

SACS put the Coffee County district on probation last year because the accrediting agency said the school board was interfering with the district, micromanaging school staff and behaving unprofessionally. The probation was extended in June until 2012 to give the board more time to work on its problems.

"We are just overwhelmed for the opportunity to continue to improve," said Billy Cliett, chairman of the Coffee County school board and retired educator. "We take this very seriously. There is no way failure is an option."