DeKalb County schools have until Oct. 31 to make changes or risk national accreditation sanctions, a situation not unfamiliar to metro Atlanta school districts.
On Thursday, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools placed the state’s third-largest district on advisement, which is the step preceding probation.
“For accreditation purposes, they are not in crisis,” SACS president and CEO Mark A. Elgart said. “It’s not to say these challenges are minimized or not real.”
The SACS parent agency, AdvancED governs about 27,000 schools and 5,000 districts across the nation. Currently only eight districts -- including Atlanta Public Schools and Clayton County -- are on probation. About 15 percent of the fully accredited districts are under advisement, including Cobb County.
Although three metro Atlanta districts are facing accreditation troubles, Elgart said Georgia is not an exception, but is a reflection of the problems that schools face with officials taking a more rigorous look at how accreditation standards should be met.
SACS started questioning DeKalb after former superintendent Crawford Lewis, former chief operating officer Patricia Reid and two others were indicted in May on charges they ran a criminal enterprise in the school system.
DeKalb has been ordered to make eight improvements: implement strategic planning, update policies, develop training on policies, establish a clear line of authority with the internal auditor, fix the administration of the CRCTs, redistrict and close schools based on data, hire a new superintendent and develop a communications plan.
DeKalb board members formally accepted the report in a short afternoon meeting and announced that interim Superintendent Ramona Tyson had formed a task force to address each of the recommendations. Chair Tom Bowen said the report didn’t contain any surprises, and he stressed to parents that the district was not in the midst of an accreditation crisis.
“Our goal is to make sure that the five-year, district-wide accreditation in 2012 goes smoothly,” Bowen said. “This just gives us a road map to make sure it goes well.”
Atlanta Public Schools’ high schools were placed on probation in January. SACS is expected to return to Clayton County schools on April 24-26 to determine if they remain on probation. In 2008, Clayton became the first school system in the nation in nearly 40 years to lose district-wide accreditation.
An accreditation loss can impact scholarship money, federal funding, college acceptances, property values and pre-kindergarten funding. Every five years, SACS reviews school districts and gives them full accreditation, advisement, warning, probation or loss of accreditation.
Cobb was placed on advisement during its five-year review during the 2009-2010 school year after it failed to meet one standard, SACS said. Cobb will be reviewed again in 2014-2015.
Jay Dillon, Cobb schools spokesman, said the district received a special "emerging" status during its review because the board had not approved a vision statement. The board adopted the statement on Dec. 9 and is now in full compliance, he said.
Unlike other districts under scrutiny, DeKalb asked for a special review, Elgart said.
“DeKalb is really trying to distance itself from its mess,” Elgart said.
State Sen. Emanuel Jones, D-Decatur,who hadn’t seen the report, said it was important that the DeKalb school board members work together and with other officials to ensure the district meets the recommendations.
“We cannot allow this system to be elevated any further in the eyes of this agency,” he said. “We have to embrace what’s in this report and agree to make the changes necessary to move the school system forward.”
David Schutten, president of the Organization of DeKalb Educators, said he was taken back by the initial findings, specifically the direction to close schools and take action on the redistricting.
“Who does SACS answer to? What do they have to do with closing schools? I’ll have to look at SACS’s role, because this is first I’ve heard of them having anything to do with telling districts to close schools,” he said.
SACS began looking into DeKalb in July amid allegations of nepotism, conflict of interest, questionable procurement procedures and other ethical problems for the district. Accreditors were specifically concerned about the indictments for Lewis and the others.
DeKalb parent Jerrie Williams, who attended the Thursday meeting to hear the report, said the issues are fixable and that Tyson will have it done before the October deadline.
“Our interim superintendent has done a fabulous job of redirecting the nightmare she was given,” Williams said. “I am very optimistic that things are going to turn around even greater.”
In the past six months, SACS has received reports of a DeKalb board member engaged in a heated dispute with a legislator, another threaten to slug a reporter and a third belittle administrators during a public meeting. Elgart attributes these behaviors to the board members’ failure to work together.
“We have board members who, once they are elected, forget they are supposed to move to serving; some of them are still running an election,” he said.
Board members formally accepted the report Thursday in a short afternoon meeting and a
Board members formally accepted the report Thursday in a short afternoon meeting and announced that Interim Superintendent Ramona Tyson has formed a task force to address each of the recommendations.
Chairman Tom Bowen said the report didn’t contain any surprises, and he stressed to parents that the district was not in the midst of an accreditation crisis.
“AdvancED has given us this report to provide a roadmap to gain full accreditation in 2012 when the district undergoes its normal renewal process,” he said.
nnounced that Interim Superintendent Ramona Tyson has formed a task force to address each of the recommendations.
Chairman Tom Bowen said the report didn’t contain any surprises, and he stressed to parents that the district was not in the midst of an accreditation crisis.
“AdvancED has given us this report to provide a roadmap to gain full accreditation in 2012 when the district undergoes its normal renewal process,” he said.
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