The Atlanta school board will continue a two-day retreat Saturday, after a discussion Friday that laid bare in public the disappointments, disbelief and doubt that have dogged members for so long.
Whether they can overcome those issues -- the legitimacy of the board's leadership, the board's decision-making, and discord over personal relationships and values -- remains to be seen. Discussion, especially during the afternoon, briefly staggered even the mediators and policy experts Friday as they struggled to move the board toward common ground.
That Atlanta Public Schools' ultimate goal is to teach children well is perhaps the easiest point of agreement. As they work through an agenda filled with the likely landmines -- work that will stretch beyond this weekend into the next several weeks -- they know the stakes: If they don’t come out of this with some understanding of how to operate as an effective board, they may be doomed.
"We really do believe you as a group have everything you need to come together," said Chris Carleston of the University of Georgia's Fanning Institute, one of three mediators who also sat down with individual board members prior to this weekend. "You have far more in common than what separates you."
The nine board members should worry first about helping Atlanta's 49,000 students, she said.
But no quick resolution was expected. Among the issues the board must resolve, as summed up by the mediators:
- What are the roles, relationships and responsibilities of the board members and the superintendent and her staff, respectively?
- Who speaks for the board? What, if anything, changes when there is a crisis?
- What questions remain regarding the legitimacy of current board leadership? The board may decide Saturday to consider this issue in conjunction with a policy discussion about how and when the board elects its chair and vice chair.
- How should board members regulate themselves?
- How can the board improve its decision-making?
The board members face enormous pressure. Atlanta Public Schools' accrediting agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, has threatened to yank the district's accreditation unless the board overcomes members' infighting. It put Atlanta on probation in January, with a Sept. 30 deadline for resolving problems.
The threat of the district's accreditation being revoked comes as the board also faces a superintendent search and ongoing probes into cheating on student achievement tests. It also has been subjected to a barrage of criticism from Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, the city's powerful business community and parents.
Reed blames the problems on current Chairman Khaatim Sherrer El and has said he wants the board to elect a new chair or he won't support the city's next superintendent, a threat that board member Nancy Meister called a "form of bullying."
Additionally, a new law in Georgia would allow the governor to remove members of the Atlanta school board after July 1 if they are not making sufficient progress. The law would go into effect pending an OK by the U.S. Justice Department, which will review it because it affects voting and elections.
According to its accrediting agency, the board must show marked improvement on six mandates related to governance. Among the board's ongoing work, it has hired mediators to help with personal conflicts as well as governance experts to work out disagreements over policy.
Supporters say if left alone the board can work its way back to a general consensus. But every step is under scrutiny. And even some board members wonder about the road ahead.
"Trust broke down in the process of getting here and has never been rebuilt," member Reuben McDaniel said Friday. The board's issues began early last year, erupting in a policy fight and a lawsuit between members last fall, the settlement of which still riles some on the board.
Mark Elgart, president and CEO of AdvancED, which oversees SACS, said Friday that a progress reported submitted earlier this month by the board showed it was putting some frameworks in place that should help the system solve its problems.
But, he said, they are still far from where they need to be.
Staff writer Christopher Quinn contributed to this article.
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