The Georgia Supreme Court will release a decision Monday in a lawsuit brought by former DeKalb County school board chairman Eugene Walker, who was ousted by Gov. Nathan Deal over accreditation issues.
Deal suspended Walker and five other members of the nine-member board in February after the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools placed the district on probation.
Just before the ouster, the school district sued in federal court. Then, the board appointed by Deal removed the district as a plaintiff, but Walker fought on with independent funding.
U.S. District Judge Richard Story referred the case to the state’s high court, asking for answers to two constitutional questions regarding the state law Deal used to remove the board members. O.C.G.A. 20-2-73 authorizes the governor to remove school boards in districts on probation. Story asked if that law violates a doctrine that school systems be controlled by elected school boards and whether the General Assembly extended unconstitutional powers to the governor.
It’s unclear how the Supreme Court has ruled; it merely announced Friday on its website that an opinion in the case will be released Monday morning. A ruling in favor of Walker could mean he and the others get restored to the board. That outcome, though, would come too late for one of the ousted members: Donna Edler, who represented District 7, died in October after battling cancer.
Whatever the outcome, it will surely have an effect on the district’s 99,000 students. SACS placed Georgia’s third-largest school district on probation last December, complaining of mismanagement and school board turf battles. The agency has threatened to pull accreditation if the school board and Superintendent Michael Thurmond fail to address the agency’s concerns by December.
Mark Elgart, the president and chief executive officer of SACS parent company AdvancED, has said Thurmond and, significantly, the board appointed by Deal have made progress and are likely to retain accreditation, albeit under probation.
Accreditation loss could damage the local economy, not to mention the college prospects of DeKalb graduates. When SACS pulled nearby Clayton County’s accreditation several years ago, students left the district and the value of real estate declined.
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