Applause broke out a dozen times Saturday for DeKalb County school superintendent finalist Cheryl L.H. Atkinson as she spoke to parents, teachers and community leaders directly for the first time.
Atkinson, 52, is the only candidate in the running to lead the troubled 96,000-student DeKalb school district, Georgia's third-largest. She seemed to hit all the right notes for a crowd of about 300 at school system headquarters in Stone Mountain who wanted to know if she has the goods.
Needed: a leader to improve academics, clean up an administration tainted with alleged corruption, and motivate teachers.
"This is tough work," Atkinson told the crowd. "It's heavy lifting and it will take time."
But she said that she can and will turn around the school district, which is currently dealing with a slew of issues, including an ongoing legal wrangle with former superintendent Crawford Lewis, who along with several others is accused of running a criminal enterprise with more than $80 million of the district's school construction money.
"I understand there's a perception of nepotism and cronyism," Atkinson said. "But I think that if we have the right people, competent and capable in the job, then that will address the heart of the issue. I'll spend the time studying this and realigning [staff] and probably downsizing it."
One parent asked her if she'll remove principals and teachers with a history of poor performance.
"Yes," Atkinson said without a pause.
She said that when she took over a school in Orlando she let all of the teachers and administrators know what her expectations were and how their work would be measured, and at the end of the first school year they all had to reapply for their jobs.
Atkinson promised to conduct a top-down review in the first 90 days of her tenure and said critical employment decisions will be made soon afterward.
"I can only be as effective as the people around me," she said. "I have no problem telling someone that you have to go. Our children cannot wait. They need quality education right now."
She said she also wants to conduct a top-down audit of school finances, looking at each program and how it spends local, state and federal money. If the money spent doesn't bring results, then the program must go, she said.
Atkinson is superintendent of the Lorain City Schools in the metro Cleveland area, and she has been a teacher, principal and administrator for about 30 years, starting in North Carolina. She was a recent finalist for the superintendent jobs in Atlanta and Cleveland.
Her current district of 7,600 students and just one high school is dwarfed by DeKalb, but she noted she's been a top administrator in some of the nation's largest school districts, including Charlotte and Kansas City.
She said she knows DeKalb has faced legal and political challenges, but no matter what, "I want you to know that my focus will be on the children. Anything else will be a distant second."
Orrin Hudson, parent of two children in DeKalb schools, attended Saturday's meeting and said he was dead-set against Atkinson until he looked at her record and heard her speak.
"She had never been a superintendent of a system this large and I was thinking, no way," he said. "But when you look at what she's done, and hear her passion -- that's all it took for me. They should hire her now."
The DeKalb Board of Education is scheduled to vote on hiring Atkinson at a special meeting at 10 a.m. Monday at the DeKalb school headquarters, 1701 Mountain Industrial Blvd., Stone Mountain.
If she's hired Monday, she will begin her job Sept. 15 at a base salary of $275,000 and with a three-year contract.
The story so far
Crawford Lewis, DeKalb County's former school superintendent, was indicted in May 2010 on allegations of running a criminal enterprise in the school system, funneling lucrative construction contracts to friends and relatives.
The system is facing lawsuits, including breach of contract from its former construction company Heery International, the company fired by Lewis and his former associates. The district has an ongoing $100 million lawsuit against Heery.
The system's accrediting agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, has given DeKalb an Oct. 31 deadline to hire a new superintendent or face possible sanctions.
Last spring, DeKalb named three other finalists to become the new superintendent, but all three dropped out of the running after details of the negotiations were leaked to the public.
Two weeks ago Atkinson was named sole finalist for the job. Two of the nine school board members have questioned whether she has the credentials to lead the district.
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