The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Miller County’s mess:
Bitter split on school board raises fears that accreditation is at risk.
Yet another Georgia school board mired in conflict raises the question of when and how the governor should get involved.
There is a mess in Miller County, one that stands in contrast to the peace-projecting murals that adorn buildings in the county seat, Colquitt.
Two of the five members of the Miller County Board of Education don’t get along with the superintendent. Check that: If the superintendent were on fire, they might well ask if he was thirsting for a cup of gasoline.
These board members say they are kept in the dark about important decisions and misled in public meetings. Meanwhile, the superintendent says he’s forced to walk on eggshells, afraid of being fired at any angry moment. Parents are embarrassed and confused.
The district has been placed on probation by its accrediting agency, and the state Board of Education has recommended that Gov. Nathan Deal dissolve the local board.
Miller’s mess raises several questions: When should a governor step in to end bickering that has threatened the accreditation of a district’s schools? And how can voters be assured they’ll get professional, competent service from men and women who, often with only a few hundred votes, gain control over millions of tax dollars and the educational future of a district’s
children? Answers vary. The Miller County dispute and the possible loss of accreditation could muddy the reputation of the schools, weaken the value of high school diplomas and limit scholarship opportunities for area students. It’s happened before. Thousands of students fled Clayton County schools when the district there was stripped of its accreditation in 2008. The district lost $23 million in state aid and saw 300 teachers leave. ThenGov. Sonny Perdue removed four board members for violations of the state’s open meetings law and for ethical lapses.
Atlanta city schools escaped a similar fate in the aftermath of the cheating scandal, though board acrimony became the norm.
A law passed in 2011 and inspired in part by the scandals and infighting in APS, requires districts to adopt a code of ethics. It expands the amount of training school board members must receive. That same law reaffirms the governors authority to get rid of a school board whose actions have put the district’s accreditation at risk and establishes a new process for doing so.
With Miller County’s accreditation on the line, people in that community are sharply divided over the question of whom to blame and how to move forward.
An old vendetta?
As they campaigned for a spot on the school board in 2010, Renza Israel, a former teacher and coach in Miller County, and Bob Eldridge, a roofer who moved to Colquitt in 1998, told voters that they would change the way things were done on the school board.
The two men contended that the school system operated in a secretive manner and said little attention was paid to student discipline. Both also found fault with the district’s incoming superintendent, Robert Mcintosh, a large man known for his bluntness who had served as principal and athletics director at Miller County High School.
Israel’s and Eldridge’s complaints about Mcintosh were many: He lived outside Miller County, meaning the board violated its own policy in hiring him. Mcintosh was to be paid $105,000, a salary the two felt was exorbitant in a county with a family median income of about $32,000. And Mcintosh, they argued, didn’t listen to his teachers and was lax on student discipline when he was principal.
“He wasn’t qualified,” Eldridge said.
Mcintosh said the genesis of the anger against him stretches back to when he was athletics director and Israel served as Miller County High’s baseball coach.
“Let’s just say we had some disagreements,” Mcintosh said. “I’ll leave it at that. I guess I created an enemy.”
Israel, a 63-year-old whose own bluntness matches that of Mcintosh, filed an age discrimination complaint against the district when he was fired in 2009 to cut costs. McIntosh later fired his wife, who also taught in the district.
He readily admits that he is furious about his dismissal and the dismissal of his wife. And he does blame Mcintosh.
“I’ve been accused of harboring resentment toward the superintendent,” Israel said. “I ain’t harborin’ nothin’.”
The same can certainly be said of Eldridge, who has cursed out the superintendent in public and during executive sessions. Eldridge also angered Mcintosh by visiting the local high school without signing in and by asking students questions about discipline.
“Bob has a problem understanding limits,” McIntosh said. “He wants to do what he wants to do.”
In April 2011, just a few months into his tenure, Mcintosh warned Eldridge that he would turn to the district’s accrediting agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, if Eldridge did not refrain from overstepping his role.“he said, ‘That’s OK,’ ” Mcintosh recalled. “‘We’re going to fire your ass.’ ”
Less than three months later, Mcintosh reported his own board to SACS, which conducted a review and promptly placed the district on probation.
That probation opened the door to scrutiny from the Georgia Board of Education.
While governor, Perdue removed members of the Warren County School Board in 2010. But last month the Georgia Supreme Court struck down that decision. The 2011 law establishes a different process for the removal of school board members, but it has not been tested in court.
The state school board could summon board members from troubled districts and have them explain why the board should not be dissolved. The state board would then make a recommendation to the governor, who could dissolve the entire board or leave it intact. He can not remove individual members.
Israel and others in Miller County wonder why the state would bother itself with their internal battles. He notes that he and Eldridge are often outvoted, and the district’s schools are in excellent shape.
“The state board hasn’t said yet how we’ve interfered,” Israel said.
Barbara Hampton, chairwoman of the state board, said Miller’s board “has been operating in an unacceptable manner.”
Harriet Lane, a retired teacher with 27 years of experience in education, said she and others in the county want Israel and Eldridge to bring change to the district.
“When the people turned out and put in the two new people, we all got so excited,” she said. “We thought it would be a new beginning. Now look.”
Eldridge and Israel’s threats to fire the superintendent have caused some district staff members to fear for their own jobs, particularly if they are seen as being allied with the superintendent.
“Sometimes, you feel like you’re being pulled in two different directions,” said Jeffrey Hatcher, the technology director.
Not an easy job
People in Clayton County know what its like to have a bitterly divided board.
It’s been a long, hard road back to respectability, said Pam Adamson, chairwoman of the Clayton board.
Part of a board member’s challenge is learning the limits of his or her authority — and the general public doesn’t make that easy, she said.
Often, constituents ask board members to intervene in disciplinary, academic or athletic issues that should be handled at the school level, she said.
“They want to know, ‘Why did I vote for you if you can’t help me?’ ” Adamson said.
Even though board members are supposed to set policy and allow staff to carry it out, they are tempted to do the bidding of their constituents, Adamson said.
Georgia is one of a handful of states that requires board members to undergo training, and the 2011 school boards law increased the number of hours of training board members must receive. Organizations that provide training must disclose to the state more information about themselves.
New board members must have 15 hours of training each year, an increase of three hours. Continuing board members must have nine, up from six hours. Three of the training hours must focus on finances, and three must be taken by the entire board at the same time.
School boards must adopt a code of ethics that calls on them to treat each other with respect, and members seeking re-election must sign an affidavit verifying that they have received the required training and have adhered to the code of ethics.
Tony Arasi, director of board development for the Georgia School Boards Association, said the 2011 law demands more accountability.
“This is the toughest time maybe ever to be a board member,” Arasi said. “The vast majority of board members take it seriously and do their best in very trying circumstances.”
Miller County board members have received training, but that did not squash its squabbles.
The state board of ed- ucation twice summoned Mcintosh and his board to Atlanta to address their problems. State board members voted unanimously to recommend that Deal dissolve the Miller County board, a decision that has heads shaking in southwest Georgia.
Leroy Bush has been on the board for 12 years and serves as its chairman. He believes the governor should have the authority to remove individual board members.
“If the governor can pardon a criminal, surely he can remove two board members,” Bush said. “How do you remove a whole board when you’ve got three board members who hired a superintendent to let him do his job?”
Israel said dissolving the Miller County board would amount to the disenfranchisement of voters.
“If you get rid of the five of us, 90 percent of the problem is still going to be here,” Israel said. “I don’t think the state board has the right to disenfranchise every voter in this county.”
SACS will issue an update on Miller’s accreditation status in mid-may. Stephanie Mayfield, a spokeswoman for the governor, said he is consulting with people in Miller County and has not made a decision.
Meanwhile, parents in the county are embarrassed and frustrated.
“I think it’s just a big [pointless feud],” said Steve Ard, a 41-year-old restaurant owner with three children.
Ard questions the motivations of some board members, and he believes Mcintosh, the superintendent, has a bullying, noncollaborative style..
“I’ve always heard that absolute power corrupts absolutely,” Ard said. “Around here, a little bit of power corrupts absolutely.”