DeKalb school board candidates lean to the light side

By Megan Matteucci

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Turnout for the DeKalb County school board election is not as overwhelming as expected, even with continuous complaints about poor leadership.

By Thursday, just 12 people had qualified for the five seats that will appear on the DeKalb ballot in November.

They are incumbent Jim Redovian and Nancy Jester in District 1, Corey Wilson in District 3, incumbent Jay Cunningham and Jacques Hall Jr. in District 5, incumbent Zepora Roberts, Donna Elder, Richard Gathany, Willie Mosley Jr. and Donny “Muhammad” Grogan in District 7, and incumbent Eugene Walker and Ella Smith in District 9.

Qualifying for the non-partisan elections in DeKalb and Fulton ends Friday at noon.

DeKalb board chairman Tom Bowen, who is not up for re-election, said he was surprised that eduKALB did not produce any candidates. The non-profit group was assembled by the Chamber of Commerce to help attract better qualified school board members.

“Public education has a direct impact on the economic development, property values and level of crime in every community, so it makes sense for the DeKalb Chamber to get involved,” Bowen said. “I expected to see more after their initial press release, particularly as it relates to increasing public interest and involvement in education in DeKalb.”

The eduKALB group was put together in May, between the board firing of superintendent Crawford Lewis and a grand jury indicting Lewis and three others.

DeKalb Chamber president Leonardo McClarty, who serves as the group’s secretary, said eduKALB was not designed to screen candidates who qualify, host forums and make an endorsement, but not identify candidates.

“While we’re advocating for quality candidates, the actual role is not to go out and recruit candidates; it’s to vet the candidates,” McClarty said. “I expected more people, but unfortunately what happens is that people will complain, but they want someone else to make changes.”

Jester, who has two children at Hawthorne Elementary School and another at home, has never run for office before but she didn’t want to sit back and be one of those complainers.

“I don’t think we can afford to not get involved," Jester said. "I didn’t want to sit on the sidelines and complain or offer just advice.” “It’s really imperative we have parents with young children in the district to restore optimism to the board and bring the community back in.”

Hall, also a political newcomer, said he too was angry at the current board and wanted to bring energy to the board. Hall, 22, is a Lakeside High School graduate and a business student at Georgia Perimeter College.

Bruce McMillian, president of the Southwest DeKalb High School Council, was one of the few parents to defend the sitting board.

“It’s easy to come out and criticize; I think our board has gotten a bad rap,” McMillian said. “If eduKALB wants to help, they need to get involved with schools, go into some of these underachieving schools and work with parents who don’t know how to get their kids on track.”

Elsewhere, Fulton has seats open in districts 2, 5, 6 and 7. So far the incumbents running for districts 2, 6 and 7 have no challengers. For the District 5 race, incumbent Ashley Widener is not running for re-election. Three people have qualified for that seat so far, Linda McCain, Marti Elliott and Greg Blotner.

In Cobb, six candidates are vying for three board seats in the July 20 primary. In District 2, Holli Cash, the incumbent, is running against fellow Democrat Patrick Stafford; in District 4, Republicans Kathleen Angelucci and William R. “Bill” Borden are squaring off, and in District 6, Republicans James “Jim” Snell and Scott Sweeney are running against each other.

In Clayton, District 4 candidate Xavier Ross, 19, was disqualified from the primary because he was too young to run, said Annie Bright, Clayton’s elections supervisor. Only Democrats are running in Clayton. They include incumbent Pamela Adamson and Richard F. Jones in District 1, incumbent Michael King and R. Jermaine Coleman in District 4, and incumbent Charlton Bivins, Grandvial H. Quick and James R. Searcy in District 9. Incumbent Alieka Anderson is unopposed in District 8.

In Gwinnett, two Republican incumbents are running for re-election on the Gwinnett school board, Dan Seckinger in District II and Dr. Robert McClure in District IV.

McClure is the only candidate facing opposition in the race for District IV. Democrat Mark Williams will challenge him in November. Two independent hopefuls, residents Kenneth Mims and Quiana Martinez, are collecting signatures to meet a July 13 election petition deadline.

Staff Reporters Ralph Ellis, Gertha Coffee and Aileen Dodd contributed this report.