An institution of learning deserves a governing board that is capable of just that – learning.
The current DeKalb County School Board fails that test. Much like a classroom, the proof is in their work.
The board’s most recent collection of bad moves shows that, collectively, it deserves a red-letter F, for failing even the most basic tests of competency and understanding of what a school board’s governing role should be about.
The board’s swift and surprising firing of Superintendent Cheryl Watson-Harris showed a disregard for good governance, transparency and fair play.
Watson-Harris, hired less than two years ago, said she was blindsided by her dismissal by a 4-1 vote.
Considering superintendents work for school boards, Watson-Harris’s statement points to the board’s poor job of managing their hired leader.
Her short tenure was even less than is common for leaders of large school districts, who are known to move around every few years in search of career opportunities.
And even her hiring showed signs of flawed collective thinking and action by the board. Watson-Harris was not the first finalist for the job.
Weeks after naming Rudy Crew, then a college president in New York City, to lead the district, the board then voted 4-3 not to hire him.
Crew sued the district, saying it discriminated against him because of his age and race. The district later settled the lawsuit for $750,000, according to a copy of the agreement obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Last Tuesday, the DeKalb Board brought back retired deputy superintendent Vasanne Tinsley to lead the district on an interim basis.
The quickness of her hiring raises questions of its own. Our education columnist, Maureen Downey, put those concerns well, writing, “That the board had a retired former DeKalb administrator waiting in the wings to immediately designate as interim Tuesday speaks to the planning that went into this clandestine plotting.”
We’ve seen nothing from the board that would argue against that conclusion; certainly not the “we wish her well” sentiments of a press release issued after Tuesday’s board meeting, or the vague sentiments that they could no longer work effectively with her.
The board’s firing of Watson-Harris and its controversial decisions this month around renovating the deteriorating Druid Hills High School building have seriously damaged the credibility of a school district where many actions have been suspect, to say the least, for more than a decade.
In that respect, to return to the classroom metaphor, the DeKalb board also showed a stunning disregard for history.
In 2013, then-Gov. Nathan Deal used a new state law to remove six school board members after an accrediting agency placed DeKalb on probation. After the expected legal fight over that move, the Georgia Supreme Court unanimously upheld the law.
DeKalb County observers point out that the district had come close to an effective takeover by the state at that time, given its multiple problems, including criminal trials of officials on public corruption charges.
Counting new interim superintendent Tinsley, DeKalb has had seven superintendents since 2010.
The board’s actions last week aroused concern from groups as varied as the DeKalb NAACP to Gov. Brian Kemp to the Georgia Department of Education.
That diversity of perspectives and interests in agreement on this matter makes a powerful point that the DeKalb School Board should hear and heed.
It’s common in DeKalb for critics to line up along the common political and socioeconomic divides endemic in America today.
Yet, school board governance shouldn’t be about politics. It should be about ensuring that the nearly 100,000 children in DeKalb’s public schools get the quality education that Georgia’s Constitution demands.
That shouldn’t be that hard, even in a county with interests as diverse as DeKalb, especially given the significant economic resources at the board’s disposal, including more than $300 million in federal COVID-19 relief aid.
From Lithonia to Decatur, engaged DeKalb parents all want the same thing – a competent school board capable of hiring an effective leader who will be on the job long enough to make the county’s schools all that they should be.
That’s not the case now, which falls squarely on the DeKalb School Board. That must change.
DeKalb voters and taxpayers should demand that it does.
And so do we.
The Editorial Board.
