The DeKalb County school board will keep its nine members for the next two years under a bill passed Wednesday by the state Senate.
Senate Bill 412 is sponsored by Sen. Fran Millar, R-Dunwoody. It seeks to postpone implementation of Senate Bill 79, which became law last year. That law mandates a smaller school board starting Jan. 1.
Millar was among those who voted for SB 79. But he said he didn't know at the time that the law would trigger a problem: It is illegal to draw school board members out of their districts midterm.
How to solve that problem has proved divisive. Earlier this year, the county's delegation to the state House was unable to agree on a new map that would merge the existing nine school board seats into, at most, seven districts. A debate also erupted Wednesday on the Senate floor, pitting Millar against other DeKalb senators who took issue with the handling of SB 79.
SB 412 passed on a 37-17 vote. It now moves to the House for consideration.
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