The only name that high school graduates really need to see on their diplomas is their own. Neither they nor their families care whether the sheepskin features the name of the superintendent of schools.

That's particularly true if the superintendent just came to town a month ago and played no role in their education. Nonetheless, newly hired Clayton County schools Superintendent John Thompson last week decided to trash 3,000 diplomas about to be handed to graduating seniors because he discovered his name wasn't printed on the documents. Instead, seniors were given a blank sheet of paper to mark their graduation at ceremonies over the weekend (The diplomas had been ordered in December, long before Thompson was hired.)

Thompson seemed unfazed, both by the $80,000 cost to reprint and mail the diplomas and by the disappointment of seniors when they found out their real diplomas wouldn't arrive for weeks.

"It's no harm," he said. "It's just a sense of pride, and they will have it soon."

What Clayton residents ought to have right now is a sense of outrage. Their new superintendent appears as self-indulgent and out of touch with reality as the flaky school board that hired him in April.

Even in contract negotiations, there had been troubling hints of an oversize ego; Thompson sought a $275,000 salary; up to $2 million to hire a consulting team; 24-hour security; and 24-hour access to a car and driver. Those fears of a vaulting ego have now been confirmed by Thompson's fit of pique over the diplomas.

While the school board didn't meet all his demands, Thompson did receive a 14-month salary-and-benefits package worth $400,000. In return, the 63-year-old educator is supposed to help Clayton avoid becoming the first school system in the nation in 40 years to lose accreditation.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools has given Clayton schools until Sept. 1 to meet nine mandates or lose its accreditation, a stamp of approval valued by colleges and scholarship organizations.

In voting to strip the 52,800-student Clayton system of its accreditation, SACS cited school board micromanagement, bid tampering, conflicts of interest, abuse of power and misuse of public funds.

Faced with those challenges, Thompson shouldn't be wasting time, money and political capital on an issue as petty as whose name appears on high school diplomas.

In a school system where 74 percent of students are poor enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, a superintendent shouldn't squander $80,000 on personal whim. (Clayton taxpayers and Thompson did get a break; the printing company has volunteered to pick up the tab for remaking the diplomas.)

During an interview last month, Thompson said his role was "to provide vigilant stewardship and visionary leadership, to make sure on a day-to-day basis the school system is functioning effectively and efficiently, and to be a guardian angel of the taxpayers' money."

If dumping thousands of diplomas is his idea of angelic guardianship over tax dollars, Thompson ought to turn in his wings.

—- Maureen Downey, for the editorial board (mdowney@ajc.com)