Robert Green now knows he wouldn't be able to fire a teacher he doesn't like.

He likely wouldn't be able to add flat-screen televisions in every Clayton County high school classroom. And he wouldn't be able to secure jobs for his friends if elected to the Clayton County school board.

"I'm trying to learn everything available and understand why our current board isn't functioning," said Green, one of six candidates for the District 5 Clayton County school board seat.

On Wednesday, eight Clayton school board candidates, along with candidates for school boards and the Legislature throughout metro Atlanta, learned how to avoid ending up like the Clayton board, which faces loss of accreditation due to unethical behavior.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools gave Clayton until Sept. 1 to meet nine mandates, including training, following an ethics policy and becoming a functioning school board.

"All you need is one board member to not follow policy and they can make a mess," Tony Arasi, director of professional development for the Georgia School Boards Association and one of the instructors, said Wednesday. "We're trying to prevent that."

The state association and the Georgia Partnership for Excellence Education are touring the state training candidates. Morrow was the second stop on the 12-city tour.

On Wednesday, the candidates learned how to avoid some of the problems that have landed Clayton in trouble with SACS: no micromanaging, follow an ethics policy, respect each other and monitor expenses.

"The board is responsible for policy," former Fulton County school board chair Zenda Bowie told the candidates.

"The school board does not run the district. We need to be real clear about that because that's where we get into micromanaging."

This is the second time in five years Clayton has worked to keep accreditation. The board spent the 2003-04 school year working to get off probation with SACS, including 144 hours of training.

"If they took this advice and went to these trainings, we wouldn't be in the situation we are now," said Vernetta Reeves, a candidate for District 6 in Clayton. "Some of these things are exactly what is in the nine mandates."

Of the 34 Clayton school board candidates, eight attended Wednesday. None of the incumbents attended the Wednesday training or the state's ethics training in April.

Arasi said he hopes the training will encourage candidates to think about whether they are qualified.

"One of the things we can never measure is why people are here. We give them the benefit of the doubt that they are here for the children," Arasi said.

"But as we have learned, that's not always the case."

SACS and some residents have accused members of the Clayton board of putting their own interests first, including voting for jobs for relatives and advocating for companies or unions with which they are affiliated.

"Politics has no place in public education," said Bowie, who served on the Fulton County board from 1990 to 2006 and was one of the instructors Wednesday. "School board members do not have the luxury to satisfy the people who elected them."

The state requires all school board members to attend 12 hours of training during their first year and six hours each additional year in office.

"What we need to do differently [in Clayton] is so obvious," said Ed Rigdon, a candidate for District 8 in Clayton. "We can accomplish so much more by being open and transparent."