ONLINE VOTER GUIDE
Before heading to the polls, you can look through a voters’ guide to see how your candidate answered questions and create your own customized ballot by visiting ajc.com/voterguide.
A look at the runoff candidates
Eight candidates are competing for four seats in runoffs for Atlanta Board of Education. Any registered voter in the city of Atlanta may vote in the two races involving citywide candidates, and residents of west and south Atlanta may also vote for their district representatives. Runoffs are required in multiway races in which no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote in the Nov. 5 general election.
District 5 — West Atlanta
Name: Steven Lee
Occupation: Executive director for the Unity Network and Counseling Center
General election results: 37%
Website: http://www.electstevenlee.com/
Name: Mary Palmer
Occupation: Academic coach
General election results: 36%
Website: http://marypalmerforschools.com/
District 6 — South Atlanta
Name: Dell Byrd
Occupation: Property management
General election results: 25%
Website: http://www.dellbyrd-district6.com/
Name: Eshé Collins
Occupation: Project director for the Jumpstart program at Georgia State University
General election results: 36%
Website: http://www.collinsforkids.com/
District 8 — Citywide
Name: Cynthia Briscoe Brown
Occupation: Attorney
General election results: 26%
Website: http://cynthiabriscoebrown.com/
Name: Reuben McDaniel (Incumbent)
Occupation: Investment banker
General election results: 37%
Website: http://www.reubenmcdaniel.com/
District 9 — Citywide
Name: Jason Esteves
Occupation: Attorney
General election results: 34%
Website: http://www.jasonesteves.com/
Name: Lori James
Occupation: President of Focus on Education
General election results: 31%
Website: http://www.electdrlori.com/
Atlanta voters aren’t just deciding their school board representatives in the Dec. 3 runoff elections. They’re also influencing who will become the next superintendent responsible for turning around the city’s public education.
Candidates for superintendent are intently watching the election, said recruiters in the search. Some may hold off on applying for the job until they know who’s elected.
Four school board representatives will be decided in runoffs, forming nearly half of the nine-member school board that will choose a superintendent early next year. The school board sets education policy, while the superintendent is the chief executive in charge of administration. Both will be tasked with improving lackluster academic results and a 51 percent graduation rate.
The election comes at a key moment for the future of Atlanta Public Schools because voters are selecting a new school board at the same time that the current superintendent, Erroll Davis, is making plans to retire.
“It’s important during this election period that we think critically about who these people are,” said Ann Cramer, chairwoman of the superintendent search group. “You might as well start with a group that has the ability to work as a team.”
Competitors in the runoff said they were well aware that Atlanta’s next superintendent will want a school board that’s collaborative and able to avoid the kind of infighting that drew the attention of the school district’s accrediting body. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools put Atlanta Public Schools on probation in 2011 because of squabbles and factionalism in the wake of investigations into widespread cheating on standardized tests. The school system regained full accreditation in November 2012.
Even though there will be a total of at least five new faces on the school board after the runoff, representatives will quickly realize the importance of unity, said attorney Jason Esteves, who faces education business owner Lori James in the election for a citywide seat.
“I strongly believe that this next election will decide what kind of candidates we get as superintendents,” Esteves said. “There’s a reason potential candidates are waiting on the sidelines. If all the candidates in the runoff were all the same, we’d have candidates knocking on the door because they’d already see what the composition of the school board will be.”
More than 400 people have been contacted in the superintendent search, and meetings have been held with at least 20, said Sam Pettway, founder of executive search firm BoardWalk Consulting, at a Nov. 14 search committee meeting.
The incoming school board will likely include a diverse mix of personalities that will have to work together, James said. A lack of teamwork would discourage some applicants for the superintendent job, she said.
“Will the new school board gel well enough to get the job done? I believe it can because there’s too much at stake for it not to,” she said.
The superintendent will succeed Davis, who took the job in July 2011 as a transitional leader to stabilize the 49,000-student school district after a state investigation said that 185 teachers and administrators participated in cheating by correcting students’ answers on standardized tests in 2009. Thirty-three educators, including former Superintendent Beverly Hall, now face criminal charges related to cheating, and one more has pleaded guilty.
“I want a superintendent who understands that a true leader doesn’t intimidate, like Beverly Hall, or dominate, like our current superintendent,” said attorney Cynthia Briscoe Brown, who is competing against board Chairman Reuben McDaniel in a citywide runoff. “A true leader motivates. A true leader is a servant leader who is part of a team to educate all our children.”
McDaniel, an investment banker, said superintendent candidates will want the assurance of knowing that while the school board is going through major turnover in its leadership, there will be some members with experience. McDaniel is the only incumbent involved in a runoff, and he was first elected four years ago.
“There’s a tipping point where there’s too much unknown for a superintendent candidate to come to the table,” McDaniel said. “I will certainly be a factor in getting a strong superintendent to come to Atlanta. A superintendent is looking for a board that has some stable leadership and broad city understanding and support.”
In addition to the two citywide runoffs, two other runoffs involve representatives for west and south Atlanta.
In west Atlanta, counseling center director Steven Lee will face academic coach Mary Palmer. In south Atlanta, Georgia State University program director Eshé Collins is competing against investment property manager Dell Byrd.
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