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DeKalb School Board plans closed meeting as deadline looms; state hires special advisor for district

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DeKalb School Board plans closed meeting as deadline looms; state hires special advisor for district

DeKalb County School District Administration and Industrial Complex on Mountain Industrial Blvd. in Stone Mountain. Photo by Dean Hesse
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This story has been updated.

DeKalb County, GA — The DeKalb County School Board has kept a low profile for weeks following its controversial decisions to remove Druid Hills High from a list of repair projects and fire former superintendent Cheryl Watson-Harris.

Key school board members responsible for those decisions have not returned messages seeking comments for articles published on Decaturish.com, and the district’s spokesperson doesn’t always respond to questions.

Now, with a looming state deadline for putting the repair project back into the district’s facilities plan, the school board has scheduled a closed, virtual meeting for Monday at 10:30 a.m. The closed-door meeting, known as an executive session, will be “for the purpose of discussing permitted matters regarding personnel, litigation, land and student appeals.”

The DeKalb County Board of Education at their May 9 meeting once again excluded Druid Hills High from the district’s repair plans. The board adopted a local facilities plan at that meeting, but did not include Druid Hills High. The state Department of Education on May 12 ordered the DeKalb County School Board to add the high school back to the plan by June 1 or risk being cut off from state facilities funds. The directive came as part of a corrective action plan for issues at the high school brought to light by students who made a video that attracted widespread media attention.

Board members have been attempting to call a meeting for days, but board members were unable to agree to do so. The board is facing numerous questions – and records requests – from Decaturish and other media outlets about their recent actions.

In related news, a spokesperson for the state Department of Education said the department is “hiring Dr. Tanzy Kilcrease, the outgoing Chief of Staff of the Bibb County School District, as a Special Appointed Advisor to work with DeKalb on the issues identified in our corrective action plan, and to work on solving systemic operations issues throughout the district. This will be in addition to our facilities team’s work with the district.”

Here’s additional information about the hire from the state Department of Education:

We are hiring Dr. Tanzy Kilcrease, the outgoing Chief of Staff of the Bibb County School District, as a Special Appointed Advisor to work with DeKalb on the issues identified in our Corrective Action Plan, and to work on solving systemic operations issues throughout the district. This will be in addition to our facilities team’s work with the district.

Dr. Kilcrease previously served as Chief of Staff for the Bibb County School District, overseeing all district operations and supervising the departments of Maintenance/Facilities, Capital Programs, Safety and Risk Management, Energy Management, Campus Police, Technology, Transportation, School Nutrition, and Athletics. Prior to that, she served in Assistant Superintendent and Associate Superintendent roles in Bibb County, as the Director of School Improvement in Peach County, and earlier in her career as a Principal of several schools in Bibb County and a middle-school teacher. She holds an Ed.D. in educational leadership from Argosy University, a specialist degree in administration and supervision from Georgia College and State University, a master’s in administration and supervision from Georgia College and State University, and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Georgia College.

Her responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

– Collaborating and coordinating efforts between the Georgia Department of Education and DeKalb County Schools regarding the issued Corrective Action Plan; providing oversight of the plan.

– Assessing the DeKalb County School District’s current operations and making recommendations for increased efficiencies and effectiveness; monitoring the progress of implementing these changes.

– Ensuring DCSD develops and executes a plan to fully address their urgent and critical facilities issues.

– Assisting with the creation of a District Rapid Response Team to address additional facilities issues identified by students and stakeholders.

– Supporting the development of best practices and a standard for quality facilities to address systemic issues throughout the district.

The school board in February removed Druid Hills modernization from a list of projects, which touched off a controversy that has continued escalating. Following that decision, students at the high school produced the infamous video showing unsafe and unsanitary conditions at their school. That got the attention of the Georgia Department of Education, and resulted in a visit by the GA DOE’s facilities team. The school board in April again declined to reconsider the modernization project, opting instead for a plan that board members claimed would address repairs district-wide. Following that meeting, state Superintendent Richard Woods sent a scathing letter about conditions at the school, saying recent repairs were mostly cosmetic. The school board responded the next day by putting most of the blame on then-Superintendent Cheryl Watson-Harris. Later that day, the school board fired her.

Investigative reporting by Decaturish has revealed there was more going on behind the scenes. A private investigative firm hired by the district to look into allegations of sketchy promotions and questionable use of federal coronavirus relief money on employee bonuses produced a report that exonerated Watson-Harris. That investigation began right around the time the Druid Hills High community started applying pressure to the school board for leaving their school’s modernization off the district’s list of projects. After the private investigator interviewed Watson-Harris on April 26, the DeKalb County Board of Education unexpectedly fired her that same day.

The state’s corrective action plan for DeKalb County Schools notes numerous maintenance issues at the school remain unaddressed, including some previously identified via work orders that predate the GA DOE’s visit to Druid Hills High.

The DeKalb County Fire Marshall also paid a visit to the high school on April 26, the same day the school board fired Watson-Harris. The Fire Marshall noted numerous violations and the facility failed its inspection. The Fire Marshall gave the school district until May 10 to resolve the problems. It’s unclear if the issues identified by the Fire Marshall have been addressed.

Other schools are not referred to by name in the corrective action plan; however, GA DOE also makes a series of recommendations “to ensure that every DCSD facility meets a standard of safety and quality.”

Those recommendations include hiring a permanent and qualified chief operating officer, reorganizing the maintenance department for maximum efficiency, and “[eliminating] the current paper/pencil work order flow and adopt the electronic processing of all work orders at the school level.”

Another requirement of the corrective action plan is aimed directly at the DeKalb School Board:

“The governance team must operate in a deliberative and transparent manner to restore public confidence and trust,” the corrective action plan says.

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