Gov. Nathan Deal ended a private meeting Tuesday with the Atlanta school board saying he was "impressed" that board members were willing "to put issues aside and work together" to regain full accreditation for Atlanta Public Schools.
The meeting was held despite objections from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the Georgia Open Meetings Act requires such meetings to be open to the public, because a quorum of the board was present.
Board Chairman Khaatim Sherrer El did not address the objection. At the meeting's end, he said the board understood the urgency of its work. "Our biggest challenge will be in regaining the public's trust," he said.
Deal had summoned the board, city schools Superintendent Beverly Hall and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed on the heels of signing legislation giving him the power to remove board members if they do not make sufficient progress by midsummer. Deal reiterated Tuesday he views that power -- which still needs a sign-off from the U.S. Justice Department -- as a last resort.
In the interim, Deal said he wanted -- and got -- a "very frank and open" discussion about board members' efforts and intentions to fix a problem they created. In turn, Reed, who has been highly critical of the board, struck a conciliatory tone and said he believed the board was "now focusing on this issue with the kind of urgency losing your accreditation requires."
The school board received notice in January that members' infighting had caused APS to be placed on accredited probation. The system's accrediting agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, gave the board until Sept. 30 to show marked improvement on six mandates related to governance.
The legislation Deal signed, however, would require an earlier deadline -- July 1 -- by which the state Board of Education must hold a hearing if full accreditation is not regained. The state board would then make a recommendation to the governor on how to proceed, and Deal could then make a decision whether to replace local board members.
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. It must submit an interim report to SACS by Sunday outlining what it has done so far.
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