Up The Creek Without A Paddle
'Dysfunctional school board'
by Terry Toole

"Did you read what happened to the Clayton County schools?" was the caller's question.

I had to admit that I hadn't read about the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) recommendation last Friday that Clayton County schools be stripped of its accreditation in September due to the "dysfunctional school board."

This is very serious for a school system, and the first time in the past 10 years that SACS has yanked a system's accreditation, and the first time in Georgia's history.

I guess it was the "dysfunctional school board" that caught many people's attention that saw the article. We could have written the book on that.

As several citizens of this county have stated, "If they (SACS) are going to yank accreditations for having a dysfunctional school board, Miller County should have been the first in the state to have been pulled."

The possible loss of accreditation for the Miller County schools is something that has been discussed with members of the Georgia Department of Education and other political figures in the state.

With the building of a new K-12 school complex, finally, one school board member stated that they were shocked, but not surprised when a local high school officialstated that we needed to lose some students, since the schools we were building would not house the students or teachers we have now.

It is the opinion of board members who are not "dysfunctional" and most citizens of this county that our schools do not need to lose students, but to gain them since our teachers who are partially paid by state and federal help are determined by our student numbers. The more we have, the more we get.

Anyone with one eye and half sense should do everything possible not to have our accreditation in jeopardy. To lose accreditation will affect every aspect of our schools and youth's educations now and in the future.

Some "politicians" will say that we are crying wolf. Our schools are not in danger of losing accreditation. Anyone who has gone through the past year or two in our schools and our board of education meetings knows that our county system is in terrible shape. The morale of the teachers is at an all time low. The schools have been losing good teachers at an all time high level and continues to lose them.

According to people in high positions in this school system, if one more of the fiveboard members had showed up at the last regular board of education meeting, two of the school principals could have been replaced. They couldn't have the meeting because three members failed to show up. A "special" meeting to do the county business has been called.

The reason for the possible replacement was given that two of the three principals are not leading the schools in the direction that they need to go in education or student discipline. These principals are letting board members run their schools. Many of the teachers are looking for other positions or early retirement to get out of the mess.

We have some of the best students anywhere in the world. We have some of the best teachers, not as many as we could have had, and we are losing more.

In the next few years, we will be paying more taxes to educate our young people than ever in the history of the county. With good leadership on our boards, in the administrative offices and hiring and keeping good teachers, the costs will be worth what we pay. But if we continue with the same old "politics as usual," in our schools and county government, it will not only be a tragedy for our youth, but bankruptcy for our taxpayers.

We must elect the best leaders for all our boards and offices, but good, qualified people must run. If those who are elected or hired do not do the job, they should be asked to resign or have recall elections to replace them.

No politicians or "selfanointed" leaders should be able to ruin the educational efforts of our young people.

Our educational system in Georgia is far from being the best, in fact, Georgia is near the bottom in education in the nation. I shudder to see how our county rates compared to the other systems in Georgia. At worst, we are still among the poorest educated in the nation.

We've got to get better. Money won't do it. We have to have better leadership in every area.

Our children and grandchildren's educations and futures are at stake. Are there any better reasons for us to get involved?