Six people qualified this week to run for an open Atlanta Public Schools board seat, with a special election set Nov. 8 to decide a winner.
The seat for District 2 came open July 11, when former school board Chairman Khaatim Sherrer El resigned with more than two years left in his term. Those vying to serve the remainder are Byron Amos, Angela Brown, Dwanda Farmer, Michael Jeter, Kwabena Nkromo and Donald Walker.
The departure of El, who left to accept a job in New Jersey, came after controversy. A seven-year board member, he took over the chairmanship last year and cemented a divide among board members that made the body barely functional for months.
The district's accrediting agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, sanctioned the board in January with probation, citing it poor governance and infighting. By the end of June, the board opted for new leadership.
In July, a state investigative report implicated nearly 180 educators in 44 schools for cheating on state tests. It was in El's southwest Atlanta district that state investigators found some of the worst testing fraud, including an elementary school in which the now-retired principal ran a schoolwide cheating scheme.
Anyone who takes El's seat will face both the scandal's aftermath as well as the scrutiny of the accrediting agency, which gave the board a Sept. 30 deadline to improve or face loss of accreditation. The board plans Monday to appoint an interim District 2 member to serve until the election.
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