The Dooly County school board last year sought time to address complaints that its members were meddling in schools, a cardinal sin according to accreditation organization AdvancED.

A year later, on Thursday, AdvanceED CEO Mark Elgart told the Georgia board of education that the Dooly board had not mended its ways. That led the state board to recommend that Gov. Nathan Deal suspend all members of the local board over governance and other issues.

State law allows the governor to intervene in school districts where accreditation is at risk. Dooly was “under review” due largely to governance issues.

Deal used this authority to remove two-thirds of the DeKalb County school board in 2013, when they ran afoul of AdvancED

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Views of the exterior of Druid Hills High School in Atlanta shown on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. In the plan approved by the DeKalb County school board on Monday, everything but the main building, pictured here, will be demolished in favor of a new school building. (Natrice Miller/ AJC)

Credit: Natrice Miller

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Jo'wan Bellamy taught in the GNETS program for 17 years and recently transferred to Atlanta’s new behavioral program at Crawford Long Middle School. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com