ATLANTA - Clayton County public schools are on the verge of losing their accreditation, a move that could put scholarships, college acceptances and education funding at risk for the system's more than 50,000 students.
A review team from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools recommended Friday that the suburban county be stripped of its accreditation in September if the system doesn't undertake a host of changes, including a shakeup of the "dysfunctional" school board.
It would be the first time in a decade the regional agency has yanked a system's accreditation, and the first time in Georgia history.
Gloria Duncan, Clayton County's interim schools superintendent, said the county intends to cooperate with the agency to develop a "comprehensive corrective plan while continuing our mission to provide the highest quality education for our students."
"We are confident that Clayton County Public Schools will demonstrate full compliance with all standards," she said in a statement.
The agency, which has been investigating Clayton since November, said it found evidence that the county's school board is "fatally flawed" and documented cases of possible ethical lapses and conflicts of interest among board members.
"It is time for the Clayton County Board of Education to accept responsibility for their actions and behaviors and commit to making needed changes in the operation of the Clayton County Public Schools or resign from the board," the report read.
Without an effective board, it added, the county's schools "are like a ship without a rudder in dangerous waters."
Accreditation is used by some colleges as a factor in accepting students, and it determines the level of pre-kindergarten funding a district receives. It also affects Georgia's Hope Scholarship, which pays the in-state tuition for students who maintain a "B" average - and graduate from an accredited high school.
The accreditation decision would not affect graduating students this year, but school officials said it would impact future classes.
"The decision on how they respond is up to the local school district. They have options as to how to handle the recommendations," said Mark Elgart, the agency's chief executive. "We're looking for an effective board. We're not telling them how to accomplish that."
The agency's report praised Clayton County's teachers and administrators, but had few kind words for the county's school board, whose members it said frequently acted in their own best interest or on behalf of special interest groups.
"As a result, the board operates in a constant of confusion and conflict," it said.
The 25-page report accused school board members of hurling insults and derogatory comments at school administrators. And it alleged a pattern of possible conflicts of interest among its members.
In one case, it said a school board member who also serves as executive director of the teachers union pushed the board to abandon a curriculum program two-thirds through a contract because it wasn't endorsed by the union.
The move cost more than $1 million and left students and teachers without a clear curriculum, the report said.
A "high level of distrust" among the board robs it of a sense of unity and leads to particularly acrimonious board meetings, the report said. At one meeting, a member berated an administrator about a contentious land deal during a motion to expand classrooms at a middle school.
The agency recommends nine strict measures, including requiring that the board commit to an ethics policy, start a training program and launch an independent audit of spending and attendance records to make certain they meet legal requirements.
The county school system, for its part, said it will start working to meet the requirements.
"We are confident that Clayton County Public Schools will demonstrate full compliance with all standards," said Duncan.
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On the Net:
Clayton County Public Schools: http://www.clayton.k12.ga.us/
Monday
October 28th, 2024
7:22PM
