Voters’ Guide to DeKalb School Board Candidates

May 13th, 2014

The DeKalb school board race will be critical for the community and the metro Atlanta region. DeKalb has the third-largest school district in the state. School and county leaders have urged residents to invest in the contest.

School board races typically draw low turnout. This race has been no different so far. The DeKalb elections office says roughly 20% of registered voters cast ballots in the school board primary. Most Georgia races will be decided in November, but some school board seats were locked down this week. The remaining seats be decided in the July runoff. The non-partisan contests will not extend into November.

WABE developed an online voters’ guide to help inform you for the primary. We kept the winners and remaining contestants’ links active.

Detailed School District Map: We have also posted a PDF of a detailed map provided by DeKalb County showing where the new school districts are located in the county. The image above and to the right is a screen shot of that map.

We sent a survey that asked each candidate for background information and their ideas on how to help the district move forward. The responses from those candidates who returned our survey are linked below. A candidate name without a link means that candidate did not respond to our survey request.

[Note: The list of candidates below has been updated to reflect the results of the May 20 primary election.]

District 1

Stan Jester – Winner

District 2

Marshall Orson — Winner

District 3 — Runoff

Michael A. Erwin (Incumbent)

Atticus LeBlanc

District 4 — Runoff

Karen Carter (Incumbent)

Jim McMahan (Incumbent)

District 5 — Runoff