The last of DeKalb County’s school board reinstatement hearings begin this week, and the school district’s accreditation agency will be watching, if not testifying.
Mark Elgart, who runs the agency that oversees DeKalb’s accreditation, testified at the first three hearings, saying suspended school board members Pam Speaks, Sarah Copelin-Wood and Eugene Walker were unfit for duty.
There is a good chance he’ll be called again Monday for Jesse “Jay” Cunningham’s hearing and Tuesday for Donna Edler’s.
Elgart’s agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, placed DeKalb on probation in December, alleging school board meddling and other management problems. The agency gave DeKalb a year to fix the issues, and on July 3 gave the district a midyear report card. The agency cited plenty of progress on 11 “required actions” under a new school board with six appointees, but said that if the old board members are reinstated it may cause “upheaval” in the district.
“The outcome of these rulings may have a material impact on the ability of the district to meet the required actions and to sustain and build upon current progress,” the SACS report said. The obvious implication: reinstatement would not be good for accreditation.
By “these rulings,” the report was referring to more than just this week’s proceedings at the Georgia Office of State Administrative Hearings. It was also talking about the constitutional challenge mounted by Walker. The Georgia Supreme Court heard arguments in June about the constitutionality of the law Gov. Nathan Deal used to replace him and five other elected board members with hand-picked appointees. A ruling is expected this fall.
Under the challenged law, the governor can remove school boards in districts where accreditation is at risk. The law provides for an appeal process, and that is what has been happening in these administrative hearings. Only one of the suspended members — Nancy Jester — did not petition for reinstatement, and she is now officially removed.
The cases were assigned to Judge Maxwell Wood. He has not said when he’ll issue his rulings, but he has noted that his decisions will merely be a recommendation to Deal, who has the final say. The law basically says that in this case Deal must make his judgment based on how he thinks SACS will respond. The law says board members should only be reinstated if their presence is “more likely than not” to improve the district’s chances for accreditation.
If Elgart testifies as he has in the past, he’ll give the judge a clear idea of what he thinks.
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