A Clayton County School Board member who does not live in the county was voted off the board Monday night, just hours after another member resigned.

Police escorted board member Norreese Haynes from his seat amid the cheers of 1,500 emotional and vocal residents worried about a possible accreditation loss.

Clayton County schools headlines: • See photos Hopes dim for Clayton school board; old issues remain  Citizens triggered school board ouster by Perdue  Perdue seeks power to fix local schools  New member joins Clayton board; meeting called illegal  Clayton school chief makes case to skeptical parents  Read the full report to SACS: • Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 (Large PDFs) Read SACS' report (PDF) Photos: Non-meeting | Angry parents | 400 protest Clayton County news

Haynes' removal came after more than 2,500 students and parents flocked to the board meeting at Clayton County Performing Arts Center in Jonesboro to implore the school board to do everything in its power to hold on to the district's accreditation. About 1,000 people were not allowed inside.

Inside, heckling and booing were often heard, while a heavy police presence outside included a helicopter patrolling overhead.

Several hours earlier, board member Rod Johnson resigned, according to board chairwoman Ericka Davis, who said the resignation is effective March 9.

Johnson said he is resigning after he addresses some of the mandates needed to hold on to accreditation, but declined to give a date.

The board voted 5-3 to remove Haynes from his District 8 seat because a police investigation revealed he is not a legal resident of Clayton County. Haynes has 10 days to file an appeal, according to board attorney Dorsey Hopson.

Johnson and Haynes are two of the four board members asked to resign by a string of groups, including the county's largest teachers' union, a coalition of high school students, the local NAACP and a state association of 48,000 real estate agents. The other two members are Lois Baines-Hunter and Sandra Scott.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accused Johnson of a possible conflict of interest, alleging he voted on issues that affect his wife, a teacher in the district. SACS recommended last month that the 52,800-student Clayton school system should lose its accreditation on Sept. 1 unless it can meet stringent guidelines.

Johnson denies the allegations and said he has recused himself from all votes concerning his wife.

The vast majority of the concerned parents and students had the same message: the board must resign so the district can hold onto its accreditation.

"Is your pride so important that you can't step down to save the future of 52,800 students?" asked Jonesboro High School junior Bridget Jones. "You may have the right to do a lot of things, but taking away our future is not one of them."

Davis moved for Haynes to be removed after an investigation by Clayton police showed he has lived in Marietta for at least two years.

Board members Sandra Scott and Michelle Strong, along with Haynes, voted against the removal, arguing that it was beyond the board chair's authority to request a residency investigation. Assuring that all board members are legal residents is one of the nine mandates that SACS said the district must meet.

Haynes, who was arrested in December in a Cobb County domestic dispute, maintains he lives in north Clayton County. A landlord told Clayton police Haynes had lived in Cobb for two years.

Clayton will hold a special election to fill the two vacated board seats.

In addition, all of the board members except for Baines-Hunter and Scott signed a sworn affidavit saying they live in the county. County officials are still investigating Baines-Hunter's residence.

The vote to remove Haynes was the first sign of emotion from the board Monday night.

The nine members sat stoically for about an hour-and-a-half as students, parents and business owners pleaded with them to resign. The board members didn't react to the crowd booing and heckling inside the Performing Arts Center.

"Your performance is a classic case of malfeasance, ineptitude and malice," Marcellus Jones, a Jonesboro father, told the board. "Your refusal to step down immediately is only further evidence of your malicious, spiteful and unwillingness to serve."

The board ignored the students' pleas — most which were followed by applause and cheers.

"Selfish allegations of power and pride should be pushed aside," North Clayton high School junior Maryum Rabia told the board.

The board also ignored the hundreds of other citizens who carried signs and stood outside the packed Jonesboro auditorium.

"Shame on you. Shame on you," father William Brooks told the board. "This is larger than you. You have affected my child's education. You have affected whether we have business coming to our county. This affects if I can sell my house if I sell to move. I am asking for everyone sitting up there for your resignations."

Parents asked for a grand jury investigation and a state take-over. Preachers asked for prayers. And even an NFL player — St. Louis Rams linebacker Chris Draft — urged the parents to continue fighting.

While the crowd walked through metal detectors, about 25 patrol cars, including K-9 units and special operations units, circled outside. A police helicopter hovered overhead while a mobile command center was set up in the parking lot.

Clayton County Police Department spokeswoman Sonja Sanchez said the department was leaving nothing to chance, given the high passions.

"We felt there was going to be a substantial amount of people of the citizens of Clayton County showing up tonight to allow their voices to be heard," Sanchez said. "We wanted to provide safety to the Clayton County citizens to make sure the outcome of the meeting is conducted in a very safe and orderly manner for all the citizens. ... We wanted to make sure we were ahead of the game."

Rosa Barbee and her 12-year-old daughter Travaughn Barbee were the first citizens in line.

"We got here at 3:30 p.m.," the seventh grade student said. "I want them to know how hard I work. I want them to resign immediately."

Vonda Hankerson echoed the thoughts of many concerned parents in attendance when she said she felt as if she and her two daughters were in limbo.

Hankerson, who is self-employed, noted that Monday was also the first day of pre-K registration. She said she was conflicted as to whether to enroll her soon-to-be four-year-old daughter. Her other daughter is a freshman at North Clayton High School.

She said she regrets the family's move from Cobb County a few years back.

"To bring [her children] from Cobb County to this is destructive," she said. "It's ridiculous."

Carla Jackson and her husband, a Forest Park detective, don't want to move from Clayton County, but concerns over the education of their daughter might mandate it.

"I need to know where we're headed from here," said Jackson, an assistant insurance underwriter whose fourth-grade daughter attends The Learning Academy at the E.C. Swift School. "I want to know what the rest of the board is going to do."

The board also voted Monday to accept the help of two state board of education liaisons appointed by Gov. Sonny Perdue. It also voted to move forward with hiring a firm to conduct a forensic audit — one of the SACS mandates.

A loss of accreditation would mean that students no longer would be eligible for HOPE scholarships and would find it harder to get into some universities. This year's graduating class would not be affected.

That would make Clayton the first district in Georgia to lose its accreditation and only the third in the nation in the past 20 years.

SACS outlined nine requirements to fix the district's problems — many of which are similar to issues that landed the school system in trouble five years ago, which also led to a SACS investigation.

In the past 20 years, only two school districts — in Hartford, Conn., and Duval County, Fla. — have lost accreditation.

SACS began the investigation in mid-November after receiving complaints from five of the nine board members of unethical behavior by fellow members.

School officials have said they expect to overcome the issues in the SACS report and retain accreditation.