Legislator files complaint against school board
- 6/13/12
- Categorized in: DeKalb News
Representative Mary Margaret Oliver has filed a complaint alleging the DeKalb County School Board violated Georgia’s Open Meeting Law during the redistricting process which took place earlier this year.
In the complaint sent to Attorney General Sam Olens’ office, Oliver claims the board violated the law when it submitted a proposed map that represented a majority action by the board. She said the board “failed to take action in an open meeting, failed to give notice of a proposed action and failed to record a vote in relation to an action.”
“There was no public vote and public discussion by the school board,” Oliver said. “I don’t believe they can meet just among themselves and pass something around and adopt it informally.
“Whatever action or vote the DeKalb School Board may have taken to propose a redistricting map to the DeKalb delegation was not taken in public and [violated] Georgia’s open meetings law…I ask you to open an investigation into this complaint as soon as possible,” she said.
In early May DeKalb Board of Education (BOE) Chairman Eugene Walker sent an email to the United States Department of Justice alleging the alternative redistricting map presented by the board to the local delegation was ignored.
“During the legislative process an alternative redistricting map was submitted to the DeKalb County legislative delegation by a majority of the board,” the email states. “The board understands that the delegation refused to consider this alternative even though the alternative more closely conforms to the school district’s attendance zones.”
Walker said Oliver’s complaint is nothing more than political bullying and the school board didn’t violate any laws.
“Some board members wanted to present a map and I told them if they brought a map with a majority signature I would sign off on it,” Walker said. “Why doesn’t she concentrate on doing her job and we can concentrate on doing ours? We have not broken the law.”
There has been one DeKalb School District scandal after the next, one budget disaster after the next, one BOE procedural fiasco after the next, one law suit after the next, one failing school after the next, one episode of BOE double dealing after the next, and one internal power squabble after the next. When does DeKalb wake up and say "enough is enough"?
The DeKalb School District will never rise out of the ashes until this Board is rejected and fired by the voters of DeKalb County. In fact the worst decision that could have been implemented about DeKalb education was to put Dr. Eugene Walker in charge of the DeKalb School Board.