Atlanta Public Schools put on probation

One of the nation's top accrediting agencies placed Atlanta Public Schools on probation Tuesday, giving its fractious school board nine months to shape up or force the ultimate penalty on thousands of students: loss of accreditation.

The announcement, which set off a chain reaction of worry and condemnation in one of Georgia's most visible school systems, had nothing to do with the system's academics. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools focused entirely on the governance of the city's school system by its elected board, which was warned in October that members' infighting had reached a dangerous level.

Losing accreditation can affect students' eligibility for scholarship money, including Georgia's HOPE scholarship, college acceptances and federal funding. It also could depress property values throughout Atlanta and scare away companies that are considering a relocation to the city.

In a strongly worded statement on Tuesday, Gov. Nathan Deal said he will "make every effort to ensure that Atlanta's children are not harmed by the adults who have failed them. ... We must do everything possible to stop an embarrassing situation from snowballing into a destructive situation."

Mayor Kasim Reed and many APS parents called for the board to step up.

"Let's stop the Kabuki theater and acting like a simple majority is a way to run a board. It's not," said Reed, who warned board members to work seriously with SACS.

"We ask each board member individually and personally to commit to doing whatever it takes to meet the requirements and exceed SACS' expectations," parent Cynthia Briscoe Brown, co-president of the North Atlanta Parents for Public Schools said.

School board members greeted the criticism soberly.

"We have to own our role about how we got here," Vice Chairwoman Cecily Harsch-Kinnane said as members met in a special afternoon session to begin reviewing the SACS report, which was released in the morning. Members, who are known far more for their bickering than their decision-making, then made a mutual decision for the first time in months: They talked with each other to gain consensus about what key points they wanted to convey to the public.

"We've been given an opportunity to meet the demands and recommendations of this review and prove the board can work together to get it done," Harsch-Kinnane said.

Probation for Atlanta means the system keeps its accreditation but has been put on notice. The board has until Sept. 30 to make progress on six "required actions" to improve its leadership and performance. It must also submit two progress reports to SACS, the first by May 1 and the second two weeks prior its review by Sept. 30. The required actions are:

A long-term community engagement plan; mediation among members to resolve communication and personal issues; adherence to board policies, especially those related to ethics and chain of command; engagement on policies that focus on students, teaching and academics; a "transparent" superintendent search that engages the public; and, in conjunction with state lawmakers, a review of the board's governing charter.

“Leadership is critical in the success of any school system, and what we're trying to do in regards to leadership matters is to prevent them from negatively impacting what happens in the classroom," said Mark Elgart, president and CEO of AdvancED, which oversees SACS.

Elgart said conflicts between board members go beyond normal political squabbles. He cited as an example a day when GBI agents visited Atlanta schools as part of an investigation into test cheating. F

"The focus that day should have been on helping parents, students and teachers," he said. "It's not a usual event for investigators to walk into schools, but they weren't talking about this -- they spent eight hours arguing over who was chair of the board."

The eventual winner of the argument, Chairman Khaatim Sherrer El, said board members would "pull out all the stops" to address the accrediting agency's concerns, which he described as "fixable." A vote on whether to accept the report will be taken Monday, at a meeting Elgart will also attend to answer board members' questions.

Atlanta is the sixth Georgia system in three years to face a formal accreditation sanction. Clayton County lost its accreditation in 2008; it has since been restored, but the system remains on probation and will be reviewed by SACS this spring.

Also in metro Atlanta, SACS will visit DeKalb County schools next week to determine whether a full-scale investigation is warranted. SACS has said it has concerns that must be addressed by early 2012. SACS is particularly concerned about the board securing a permanent superintendent, implementing newly enacted policies, ongoing legal matters and the governing effectiveness of the board.

State School Superintendent John Barge said he believed Atlanta will "come out of this process much stronger and better prepared to educate their students for the future."

"I want to reassure parents that this action will not impact HOPE eligibility or entrance into college," Barge said. "The action by SACS today is an example of the process working and we're fully prepared to help APS with the recommendations. This probationary period will spell out for APS and their board what is best for their students and the steps necessary for them to quickly emerge from the probationary status."

Discord among the board's nine members became public during the summer and had been building for months. Some members blamed poor communication -- among board members and with the public -- about a test-cheating investigation involving 58 city schools. A breakaway group of five members voted to change the board's rules so it could unseat the chairwoman and vice chairwoman and elect its preferred leaders, a move that the state attorney general suggested violated the board's governing charter. The board's deposed leaders filed suit in late October to reverse course. Elgart, after warning the board in October, formally notified the system Nov. 1 that the board's capacity to govern was "in serious jeopardy."

Board members settled the suit Nov. 23, agreeing to work with an outside expert in governance.

The probation announcement was another body blow to the district, which is in the midst of a criminal investigation into test cheating and which is also seeking a replacement for Superintendent Beverly Hall.

Hall announced in November that she will step down in June. She and four board members attended a private meeting with Elgart to receive the report early Tuesday before it was made public. She said afterward that while the sanction was a "genuine threat" to the system, "I am confidant the board takes it very seriously. I will do anything I can to ensure our accreditation will stand."

Tuesday afternoon, as word of the probation spread among students, Frederick Douglass High School junior Lauren Sherard worried aloud about her college plans for either Georgia State University or Florida A&M in Tallahassee.

Junior Allen Johnson was more adamant.

“By the time they decide, I will leave this school," Johnson of possibly transferring to a different school system. "I am not about to sacrifice my ability to get a scholarship,” he said.