The Clarke County School District Board of Education held a special meeting at the Athens Community Career Academy on Aug. 29 to discuss the AdvancED complaint towards select Board members filed on Aug. 9 against select Board members. According to Board member Dr. Tawana Maddox (third from left), the AdvancED complaint is an example of ongoing tension within the school district. “I feel like we are in a place to do something because unfortunately we can’t just sit here and do the trial and the jury right now because there is a lot of things going on in this community that are just not right about,” Maddox said at the meeting. “This is very political, but we do need to take a look at ourselves because even myself, I’m getting to hear about some of the things (and) I’m getting to think about (the) people in this community that I really respected a long time ago.” Photo by Elena Gilbertson-Hall
The Clarke County School District Board of Education called for a special meeting on Aug. 29 at the Athens Community Career Academy to discuss the AdvancED complaint regarding select members of the BOE.
Clarke County School District Superintendent Dr. Demond Means received a notification of a complaint alleging misconduct by members of the CCSD Board of Education on Aug. 9 from AdvancED, the State of Georgia’s school accreditation agency, resulting in a special meeting of the Board to be held at the Athens Community Career Academy on Aug. 29.
“AdvancED stated that the complaints from the community stakeholders allege select members lack knowledge of the Board policies and law; exhibit a lack of understanding of their Board roles and responsibilities, undermine the leadership of the district; and micromanage day-to-day operations of the district,” an email sent to CCSD staff said.
Because the official complaint has not been released to the public, the potential outcomes remain unclear. However, according to Means, the agency will use the information provided by Means to make a determination about whether a review team should be sent to work with the CCSD.
“I just think this has gone too far, I think that we are in a place in our county, maybe in our nation, but certainly as it relates to education matters as we are trying to fix relational problems with formalities,” Board President Dr. LaKeisha Gantt said. “I have a healthy respect for AdvancED in the implications of everything, (but) I won’t govern in fear and I certainly won’t govern with a reactionary approach.”
According to community member Jennine Delane, she attended the Board meeting because she was hoping to gather information about the complaint and the proposed resolution.
“I think that tonight’s meeting showed a lot of validation for the issues brought out in the complaint, that we have a very divided school board panel, and we have a need for an outside resolution,” Delane said. “I don’t want our school district and the kids to suffer in the case that our school district becomes discredited because, if it leads that far, that could put graduating seniors in a little bit of a jeopardy.”
According to Means, he is required to provide a response to AdvancED by Sept. 13, and he will share his drafted response with the Board at its Sept. 12 meeting.
“I hope that there’s space for a discussion (because) I want to offer the board as much due process as appropriate, but it is very clear that the response must be representative of the Office of the Superintendent,” Means said. “(The Board) can respond to (my) response, but there is no place for the Board to indicate they are going to provide a response to a complaint against (the Board).”
