By Cathy Loew
PEACHTREE CORNERS, Ga. | Let me applaud Senator Clint Dixon’s attempt to rein in the highly politicized school board. This was Everton Blair’s plan as Benjamin Herald explained in Education Week, October 26, 2020, “How the Fight for America’s Suburbs Started in Public Schools.”
Loew
Gwinnett County Public Schools is an attractive target as the 13th largest school district in the nation. As quoted in the article, “Blair helped inspire Democratic challengers in those races, too. Win both, and younger progressives of color would suddenly have a commanding 4 -1 majority of their own.”
The first order of business was to terminate Alvin Wilbanks. Gwinnett County taxpayers had to pay for his contract buy-out of over $530k. Some Gwinnett citizens complained Mr. Wilbanks earned too much money. The board approved the salary of Dr. Calvin Watts to the exact penny of Mr. Wilbanks base salary. Dr. Watts came from a district with enrollment of 27k (versus 188K for Gwinnett) and a $450 million dollar budget (versus $2.4 billion for Gwinnett). So now Gwinnett citizens are paying two salaries! Mr. Wilbanks announced his retirement for June, 2022. What a needless waste of money with no cause of termination provided.
Letters of complaint to Cognia, the school board accrediting agency, came rolling in. Cognia conducted a special review mid-June U.S. News and World Report summed it up with the headline, “Accreditor: Gwinnett School Board Members Must Improve.”
Cognia agreed that some board members were overstepping their bounds or were behaving questionably.
Cognia interviewed 124 employees, parents and community members, and found that the board members circumvented the chain of command improperly, end-running the board chair with demands for emergency meetings.
The report highlighted social media posts by a board member that sought money or were found racially offensive. A quote from the report: “Parent, teacher and principal interviews indicated the school board’s unprofessional behaviors do not contribute to positive student outcomes. Your activities are reported as embarrassing.”
Cognia issued mandatory directives requiring more training, revising ethics policies, creating processes of evaluation and collecting community feedback. Paid for by our tax dollar!
This is a black eye for Gwinnett County Public Schools. And it’s not over. Cognia follows-up on these mandatory directives in May. And then, Cognia returns for their normal review in June, 2022. Many people are unaware of Cognia’s impact. Loss of accreditation means the loss of the HOPE funds and athletic scholarships. Housing prices plummet, and business and economic growth will be stunted in Gwinnett.
So yes, I applaud Senator Dixon’s attempt to make the school board non-partisan. Everton Blair raised over 65k for his school board race in 2018. Half of his $100 or more contributions came from donors in states outside Gwinnett. Why are outside donors influencing our local school board election? We are the 13th largest school system in the nation. I can’t think of a better way to influence the next generation of voters.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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