DeKalb: ‘Accreditation is safe'; legislators not so sure

By Megan Matteucci

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Over the next critical 30 days, accreditors will determine if DeKalb County schools require drastic improvements and a thorough investigation.

The school system on Thursday delivered a 2,500-page report to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools that includes policies, meeting minutes and other evidence the district feels shows it has maintained standards for accreditation.

SACS will take a month determining if that evidence is sufficient

“Our response will be whether an on-site investigation is necessary. We will give them feedback as to their compliance with our standards for accreditation,” said Mark A. Elgart, SACS’ president and CEO.

SACS has the power to revoke the district’s accreditation, which could impact scholarship money, federal funding, college acceptances, property values and pre-kindergarten funding throughout DeKalb. The earliest students could be affected is next school year, Elgart said.

School officials insist their accreditation is stable.

“The school system has been very cooperative with SACS. If there are other questions, they will be addressed as transparently as these questions have been addressed,” interim schools spokesman Jeff Dickerson said. “I think the parents can rest assure DeKalb’s accreditation is safe and in order.”

But state legislators and other state officials aren’t so sure.

“DeKalb County has a leadership vacuum now,” state Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, D-Decatur, said. “We know there is room for a lot of improvement.”

Two hours before school officials delivered their lengthy response to SACS, a group of legislators met with the interim state superintendent, the chamber of commerce director and others to draft possible solutions for the system. The county has been rocked by a series of crises involving nepotism, conflict of interest, leadership and criminal charges against a former superintendent and operating officer.

“DeKalb has even been reluctant, resistant or they have just not seen any value in reaching out to the state,” interim State Schools Superintendent William “Brad” Bryant told legislators. “There are opportunities currently being lost because of this crisis in leadership in DeKalb.”

On Thursday, Bryant, a former DeKalb school board chair, and state school board member James E. Bostic Jr. also offered assistance to the troubled district. Bryant and Bostic served as the governor’s liaisons when Clayton County schools lost its SACS accreditation in 2008.

Their offer comes in addition to the newly assembled legislative committee, which met for the first time Thursday to come up with some strategies on to help. Top on the list were adding local legislation that would reduce the number of school board members from nine to seven and establishing an independent ethics commission.

The legislative committee also wants to end some of the exceptions in the state’s new school board ethics legislation, including protection of sitting board members who violate ethics policies and have relatives employed in the school system.

“It will take a long time for us to work those school system issues out when we have so many grandfather clauses,” said the committee’s co-chair, state Sen. Emmanuel Jones, D-Decatur. “There may be some local legislation to resolve these nepotism and conflict of interest problems.”

The Commission of School Board Excellence, a group of business leaders and legislators that drafted the state’s school ethics law, recommended school boards have no more than seven members. All boards in the metro area meet that standard except DeKalb, Clayton and Atlanta Public Schools, Bryant said.

“As you increase the number of actors that are on the board, you sometimes end up with an inability to act in conformance with anybody’s set of standards, whether it’s SACS’ standards or the standards in [Senate Bill 84],” Bryant said.

DeKalb had seven seats, but expanded to nine seats eight years ago. DeKalb school board chair Tom Bowen, who holds one of those expanded seats, said he doesn’t think the larger board is necessary and would support the change.

SACS began asking questions in May after a grand jury indicted former schools superintendent Crawford Lewis, former operating officer Patricia Reid and two others on charges they ran a criminal enterprise through construction projects at the school system.

In July, SACS ordered the district to respond by Sept. 11 to seven questions concerning hiring practices, training, conflict of interest, nepotism, procurement policies, a new superintendent search and other areas.

In addition to the indictments, some of the questions stem from reports that board member Jay Cunningham’s restaurants sold more than $22,000 worth of food to the district after he joined the board.

Questions also arose after an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation found three school system employees made almost $100,000 from self-authored books they sold to the system.

Since SACS’ inquiry, the district has taken steps to ensure accreditation compliance, including a comprehensive policy review and hiring an internal auditor, according to the district’s 2,500-page response. That response also highlights a revamped purchasing policy, along with new policies for whistle-blowers, conflict of interest and employee ethics that the board approved last week.

State officials say they can help with some of these issues by identifying a qualified superintendent candidate and establishing stricter ethical requirements for school board members. But that will be difficult to achieve, they say, when the board is resisting.

Neither DeKalb board members nor administrators attended Thursday’s legislative committee meeting.

Bowen said the board is upset that it did not receive an official invitation to the meeting or notification before it was publicized. The interim superintendent was invited, but was busy finalizing the response to SACS.

“If this were a serious attempt to have the board present and part of the discussion, we would have had some meaningful conversation before the press release was sent out,” Bowen said. “My hope is that we can address the communication issues in the future so we can have everyone at the table for these important discussions."