Will DeKalb School District Sustain Progress?

“One of the most important elements as you move forward is the sustainability of the actions you’ve taken to date and the identification and implementation of new actions,” he said.  

Gov. Nathan Deal suspended six of nine DeKalb board members last year. Then he appointed replacements. However, every board member’s term ends this year. Elgart said that means DeKalb residents share responsibility for ensuring stable leadership.

“The challenge is… for the community to place close attention to those who opt to participate in that election process, to ensure that whoever’s elected in November can continue what you started,” Elgart said.  

The governor’s decision to legally remove elected officials was controversial. DeKalb Superintendent Michael Thurmond said emerging from probation has restored autonomy.

“When you’re on probation, the governor has the authority to remove board members, as which he did and he made some good decisions,” Thurmond said. “But now, that authority is back in the hands of the voters of DeKalb County.”

Gov. Deal said when he appointed the current board members, he didn’t consider whether they’d want to run for office once their terms were up.

“I did not think at the time it was the appropriate thing to ask,” he said. “Some people asked some of those and they said, ‘No,’ they were taking this position for this interim timeframe with the idea that they could contribute to remedying a problem and their concern and interest was not to run for elected office.”

In fact, no one can run for school board yet in DeKalb. The county is going from nine school districts to seven this year. However, there is no law yet outlining district boundaries.