Photo gallery: View a slide show of some scenes from Steve Green's first months as DeKalb County school superintendent here, on myajc.com.
In early August, just before school starts, DeKalb County School District Superintendent Steve Green will go door-to-door to hear from parents and other residents what they think about the district.
The notes from those meetings could continue to help set his agenda for improving the district, which has made strides in recent years improving absenteeism, the graduation rate and standardized test scores. Community engagement is one of several tactics Green is utilizing.
His approach contrasts with the one by Atlanta Public Schools, which hired outside groups to improve some schools. Green believes DeKalb's school district can do just as well educating black, low-income students on its own.
A year in, it may be too early to tell how well Green has performed. Parents applaud his willingness to be seen in the community, and he can quickly rattle off a list of accomplishments during his first year. However, he’s also been riding the wave of successes either started by or accomplished under his predecessor.
“I’m satisfied with the way things have gone,” Green said recently. “It’s all about walking the talk, and doing what you say you’re going to do.”
Much is riding on Green’s plans for success here. In 2013, when former Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson walked away from the job, she left a district facing a $14 million deficit and growing disdain from parents and politicos about administrative mismanagement. Gov. Nathan Deal stepped in, replacing six members of the nine-person board.
Former Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond stepped into the position at the time, immediately beginning work to erase the deficit while using his political Rolodex to advocate for education. When he left, the district reported a $90 million surplus and had been showing signs of improvement. During the last school year, the district regained full accreditation and reported better scores on standardized tests, along with a double-digit increase in the graduation rate.
Thurmond, now running to become DeKalb County’s new chief executive, said recently he’s glad to see Green pick up the baton and continue the work to turn around the district.
Green said he began putting plans into place to build on the success the district already was having. A group of educators across the district is being put together to overhaul curriculum, and each regional superintendent will have his or her own cabinet to consult as part of the effort to decentralize functions and get work done faster.
If all goes well, Green hopes to eliminate 28 schools from a list Deal’s office keeps of the state’s failing schools.
The Atlanta district is hiring charter operators to run some of its struggling schools. Results have been mixed nationally for others doing something similar. Superintendent Meria Carstarphen has said Atlanta’s district is too broken to fix itself by itself.
At DeKalb school district headquarters, a 440-page binder labeled “Superintendent’s Evaluation” is divided into sections listing the school year’s accomplishments: Better community engagement. A streamlined organizational structure. An affirmative vote on extending the E-SPLOST education sales tax.
The biggest may be the plan to eliminate overcrowding in the Cross Keys cluster of schools.
Students will be temporarily displaced as plans begin for building new schools. The cluster — which includes six schools — is more than 1,800 students above capacity, with many crammed into classes and trailers, some holding more than 35 students. Green said just after he started that the overcrowding was one of the first issues he became aware of as he began his transition into the district. Seeing the conditions in person, he immediately began working on a resolution, scheduling public hearings to give DeKalb residents a chance to have input.
The meetings helped. Plans changed after parents, mostly through interpreters, brought up concerns about transportation and worries that a tentative plan district officials proposed would cause their children to be separated.
“The (Cross Keys) experience, and his desire to pay attention to what’s going on in the classroom, really encourages teachers,” said Rebekah Morris, a teacher at Cross Keys High School, adding the opinions on Green’s performance she’s heard from other teachers “have been overwhelmingly positive.”
Members of the district’s school board also give the superintendent high marks for his first year. Stan Jester said Green came in with a focus on improving the district, which Jester said has long been missing.
“Given where we were a year ago, he has exceeded my expectations,” Jester said. “While I don’t agree with every decision he’s made, I’m happy with the progress so far.”
Jester says more could be done to overhaul the district’s administrative staff, which he says has been unchanged many years and might need fresh faces for further growth.
“The DeKalb school district has been perpetually failing for 15 years and the students have changed, the board’s changed,” he said. “I don’t see how we can become a new and improved district with the same people at the helm. (Green has) changed some, but 90-some percent of the same central office staff and administrators are still at the helm.”
Board member Joyce Morley said she wants to see Green’s community involvement increase, so he can get more familiar with the students and their families. She warned, however, that it was too early to assess Green’s accomplishments.
“We don‘t have a full gauge to see how successful he is yet,” she said. “He hasn’t been in place long enough. He came in on some good numbers. He came in when we were out of debt, at the end of the standards we needed to achieve (full) accreditation. We need to give him the room to be able to grow in his own shoes and find his own place to show his own successes. And we expect him to do so.”
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