Little hope for Clayton board

After being stranded by his two fellow Clayton school board members at a pivotal meeting Friday, a desolate Michael King wondered aloud whether his beleaguered school system had any chance of regaining accreditation.

“With this kind of start, I don’t know if there is any hope,” he told the six parents and 10 journalists in the audience at the Performing Arts Center, waiting in vain for the meeting to commence.

If there’s a glimmer of hope left in Clayton, it will take the Hubble Space Telescope to find it.

Alarmed because the three-member board was hamstrung until it could make appointments to fill empty slots, King asked fellow board members Alieka Anderson and Trinia Garrett on Thursday to hold a special session the next day so they could finalize the appointments of Ophelia Burroughs, Wanda Smith and Jessie Goree to their ranks. Until the board beefs up its numbers, it can’t act on issues critical to winning back the accreditation Clayton lost on Aug. 28.

Anderson and Garrett agreed, and King quickly sent notice to alert the local Clayton newspaper, as required to meet the state’s strict Open Meetings Act.

But after getting wind that his contract might be part of the agenda, Superintendent John Thompson sent out a notice Friday morning announcing there would be no meeting in any school building.

“To the knowledge of the school district there is no Clayton County board of education meeting scheduled for today,” the statement read.

The school board then vowed to meet outside in the parking lot if necessary. At the last minute, Thompson relented, allowing the meeting to take place in the Performing Arts Center auditorium.

“There’s going to be a meeting,” said center coordinator Anita Lloyd, as she ushered waiting parents into the building. “The superintendent has allowed it.”

However, Clayton’s benevolent dictator then tried to bar press access to the meeting, in a flagrant violation of the state’s Sunshine laws. The county’s persistent violations of the laws had already contributed to the decision by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to yank Clayton’s accreditation.

Nonetheless, Thompson instructed Performing Arts Center executive director Paul Robbins to bar reporters, under the preposterous argument that the media can legally be kept out of public meetings when students are in the building. (The only Clayton County employee who understood and respected the state’s Open Meetings Act was the police officer on duty.)

After a flurry of phone calls to lawyers and Thompson’s aides, reporters were allowed to enter.

But no meeting occurred.

Despite the public notice informing parents of the meeting, Anderson and Garrett never arrived or called to explain their absences.

That left board member King facing questions from parents and reporters.

He also faced his own doubts that Clayton has elected a board that can work within the framework of the law and rebuild the system within the 12-month period set by SACS.

When asked about an eventual state takeover of Clayton, King replied: “I would like to see local control, but if we can’t get competent people on the board, then I don’t see any other choice.”

If Friday was any example, competency still eludes the Clayton board.

Learning Curve is a new weekly column on education. Please send suggestions for topics or feedback to mdowney@ajc.com.