A month before her retirement, Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Beverly Hall came clean about educators cheating to help students pass state-mandated achievement tests.
In a videotaped farewell address, she said the findings of a criminal investigation into the matter would be “alarming.” It was a refreshing about-face fueled by who knows what. It was startling, too, given that the nationally respected educator had been steadfast in denying that any significant cheating occurred on the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test in 2009.
In Gwinnett, residents know what it’s like when leaders appear to protect colleagues or feign ignorance at even a hint of malfeasance. We’ve had elected officials pooh-pooh exhaustive investigative reports — such as this paper’s look into land deals by the Gwinnett County Commission — as much ado about nothing. To add insult, the sitting commissioners failed to prepare and truly cooperate last fall when called to testify before a grand jury about the transactions.
In its 58-page report, the grand jury wrote: “It is unfortunate that the individually elected county commissioners did not take our task as seriously. In fact, one was heard to say in the grand jury waiting room that we were a “pain in the [expletive].”
Recently, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran a series of stories on land purchases in which the Gwinnett schools system paid developers far more for property than the developers paid months, even days, before. Taxpayer money resulted in developers’ windfalls.
Jim Steele, the school district official in charge of land purchases, has said the district and its residents got a good deal on the property. That may be defendable, but eyebrows raise when someone makes a boatload of money in a short span of time. Especially developers.
District Attorney Danny Porter has said he might convene a special grand jury to review the transactions.
Regardless of what transpires, Gwinnett schools Superintendent Alvin Wilbanks and his cabinet should be commended for the action they’ve taken so far, all of it sparked by the AJC probe.
In April, the officials revised several aspects of the district’s land-purchasing policy. One example: Steele must choose from one of the sites he presents to the school board for purchase. Apparently he had been allowed to choose some property that was not on the board-approved list.
Equally important, the school board voted to hire Joe D. Whitley, a former U.S. attorney for Middle and North Georgia districts, to investigate district land purchases since 1999. A final report is due within weeks.
Gwinnett school officials could have ignored the facts presented in this paper. They could have morphed into denial mode, spin mode and protection mode until the very end.
Instead, they adopted an atypical tactic: Protect all, investigate. Revise policy. Seize the opportunity to make the dysfunctional functional.
It’s called leadership. And given the recent shenanigans we’ve witnessed from Gwinnett commissioners and Atlanta’s public schools system, call it welcomed.
Rick Badie, an Opinion columnist, is based in Gwinnett. Reach him at rbadie@ajc.com or 770-263-3875.
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