Ga. wants power to fix schools

Upset about his lack of authority in Clayton County, Gov. Sonny Perdue is looking at a possible change to the state constitution to allow Georgia to intervene more with troubled school systems.

“The governor would be willing —- even if it took a constitutional change —- to give the state authority to get more involved in a situation like this,” said Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley on Wednesday. “The frustration the people are feeling of the state’s inability to go in and give the state more of a role is something he’s been thinking about.”

Dozens of Clayton County residents have asked Perdue to take control of the 50,000-student school system, which lost accreditation last week.

The governor’s executive legal team is looking at what it would take for the state to step in —- something that rescued other troubled schools across the nation, Brantley said.

For Georgia, the Senate and House would have to approve a change to the state constitution. The amendment would then need voter approval in a statewide referendum.

The earliest that could happen is November 2010, Brantley said.

That likely will be too late for Clayton, which became the second school system in the nation to lose accreditation in the last 40 years.

A group of Lovejoy residents is threatening a march on the Capitol and a letter-writing campaign to ask Perdue for more involvement.

“The goal we have is for the state to step in, run the board while they are being trained and when they are capable of handling it themselves, turn it back over to them,” said Lovejoy City Councilwoman Marci Fluellyn, who is helping organize Lovejoy of Clayton for Accreditation group. “In the meantime, give us our accreditation back and handle administrative issues in an administrative way.”

In February, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools recommended Clayton’s accreditation be revoked unless it met nine mandates to correct issues with governance, ethics and finance.

A week later, Perdue appointed two state board of education members to serve as liaisons to help the Clayton school board. He also signed a bill that allows qualified students who graduate from unaccredited schools to receive HOPE scholarships until June 2010.

Last week, Perdue removed four board members after a state administrative judge found they violated state law.

He wanted to do more, but legally couldn’t, Brantley said. “Everything we did was in an assistance mode,” he said.

Since 1988, more than half of all states have passed laws that allow state officials to take control of troubled school districts.

About 50 school districts across the nation currently have some sort of state involvement, said Kenneth Wong, director of the urban education policy program at Brown University. And about 40 percent of those districts have returned to local control after turning around, said Wong, who has studied state takeovers for the past 10 years.

“The governor needs to convene the state Legislature, as well as local leaders, to work together and develop a plan,” Wong said Wednesday. “There is an educational crisis in Clayton County, and the state needs to think about how to engage themselves in fixing this particular crisis.”

Hartford schools were on the verge of losing accreditation until the state of Connecticut took over in 1997.

Atlanta schools Superintendent Beverly Hall was the state-appointed district superintendent for Newark Public Schools from 1995 until she came to Atlanta in 1999. Hall was unavailable for interviews Wednesday, district spokesman Joe Manguno said.

New Jersey’s state education department took over Newark schools in 1995 after state investigators found the system rife with mismanagement and financial problems, according to a state report. Newark remains under state control, according to the New Jersey education department. New Jersey became the first state to seize control over a local school district when it took over Jersey City schools in 1989. The state currently runs three school districts —- Patterson, Newark and Jersey City.

Wong said he has seen a range of intervention from governors appointing a board and superintendent, to local universities running individual schools.

“The fact that it [Clayton] lost accreditation means the problems didn’t happen overnight. The public needs to be patient,” Wong said. “It has taken a long time to come to this point. And even with the support of the Legislature and governor, one needs to think of a three- or five-year plan to turn this district around.”

This is the second time in five years that SACS cited the board for micromanaging, abuse of power, misuse of funds and other ethics violations.

Researcher Sharon Gaus contributed to this article.

HOW DID CLAYTON GET HERE?

November 2007: The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools receives complaints from several board members and launches investigation into Clayton’s accreditation.

Feb. 15: SACS recommends Clayton’s accreditation be revoked Sept. 1 unless the district meets nine mandates.

Feb. 18-21: The Georgia NAACP, Georgia Association of Realtors, Clayton Student Coalition and the county’s largest teachers’ union ask for board resignations.

Feb. 22: Gov. Sonny Perdue appoints two state Board of Education members to serve as liaisons to help Clayton.

March 15: The national Accreditation Commission unanimously votes to uphold SACS’ recommendation to revoke accreditation.

March 26: The school board’s attorney and the governor’s two liaisons tell all nine board members to resign.

April 2: Board Chairwoman Ericka Davis resigns.

April 23: The board hires corrective Superintendent John Thompson.

April 24: Glenn Brock, an attorney hired by the school board to respond to SACS, quits, citing unethical behavior by the board.

April 28: Board Chairman Eddie White resigns.

April 30: The two governor’s liaisons quit, saying the board is dysfunctional. The governor signs a bill that allows qualified students who graduate from unaccredited districts to receive HOPE scholarships.

May 14: The board tells the state attorney general it violated the open-meetings law. The attorney general ordered the board to explain itself after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution filed a complaint.

July 2: The governor asks a judge with the Office of State Administrative Hearings to review a complaint from five Clayton residents who asked Perdue to remove seven board members, alleging they violated state laws.

July 15: The superintendent says the board has met all of SACS’ mandates. Voters elect two candidates and send 10 more to an Aug. 4 runoff.

July 16: Board member David Ashe resigns.

July 31: The board delivers 2,300 pages of documents to SACS.

Aug. 4: Voters elect Michael King to vacant District 4 board seat and choose three board members to place on the November ballot.

Aug. 12: Board member Rod Johnson resigns.

Aug. 14 and 15: Seven SACS investigators visit the district.

Aug. 20: A state administrative judge hears from Clayton residents who want four board members removed. The judge will decide whether the members violated the law and make a recommendation to the governor.

Aug. 28: SACS pulls Clayton’s accreditation. The same afternoon, Perdue removes the four board members from office.