The DeKalb County Board of Education ended its latest meeting Tuesday without a clear leadership succession plan, having voted recently not to hire its superintendent finalist.
The board has about a month before the DeKalb County School District loses Superintendent Ramona Tyson, who has said she intends to retire at the end of June. Tuesday’s meeting was the board’s fourth in as many weeks to come up with that plan.
"The board is meeting in executive session today to move forward with next steps in the superintendent search process," the board said through Porter Novelli, the outside public relations firm hired for the superintendent search. "We are working to identify a superintendent candidate to assume the role by July 1, 2020."
When asked whether superintendent finalist Rudy Crew was still in the mix for the position the board declined through its spokesman to answer, citing the “confidential” search process.
Crew was announced on April 23 as the board's sole finalist to become superintendent on July 1, but was swiftly met with backlash about his history, including allegations that Crew bullied a subordinate and obstructed a rape investigation involving a 14-year-old student.
The board met May 8 to vote whether to hire Crew, but ended that meeting abruptly without a decision or returning to publicly close out the meeting. It picked up the discussion again on May 11, during its scheduled monthly meeting. There, board members voted 4-3 against hiring Crew.
Crew supporters, including the Georgia Federation of Teachers, protested outside the school district’s Stone Mountain headquarters on May 18 to get the board to reconsider not hiring the 40-plus-year veteran educator.
Tyson took over the district in November after the board agreed to part ways with former Superintendent Steve Green. Green, who was hired by the board in 2015, announced a year ago that he would leave the district in 2020, after the board declined to offer him a contract extension for the second consecutive year.
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