DeKalb County's new school superintendent says she plans to audit programs with an eye to cutting.

"If it's working, great. If it's not, it must go," Cheryl Atkinson said at her state of the school system address at Henderson Middle School Wednesday.

Atkinson, who'd been on the job five days, had few specifics, but tried to calm staff in the audience. "When the word ‘audit' comes up, everybody holds their breath," she said. "This isn't gotcha."

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Fulton DA Fani Willis (center) with Nathan J. Wade (right), the special prosecutor she hired to manage the Trump case and had a romantic relationship with, at a news conference announcing charges against President-elect Donald Trump and others in Atlanta, Aug. 14, 2023. Georgia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, upheld an appeals court's decision to disqualify Willis from the election interference case against Trump and his allies. (Kenny Holston/New York Times)

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