DeKalb County, GA — The Georgia General Assembly passed a bill that increases the pay for DeKalb County School Board members to $25,000.

Senate Bill 531 passed the Senate by a vote of 45-0 on March 4 and the House by a vote of 160-1 on March 21. It now awaits the governor’s signature.

The school board salary has not increased for several years since the pay was raised from $12,000 to $18,000 almost two decades ago, School Board Chair Diijon DaCosta told the delegation.

A pay increase was part of the school board’s legislative priorities for the year. The school board was seeking to raise the yearly pay for board members from $18,000 + $450 per monthly meeting to $30,000 + $450 per monthly meeting.

“I agree with Sen. [Kim] Jackson and the Senate that we should just have a clean bill where we just do the pay raise and leave the $450 a month alone,” Rep. Becky Evans said during the March 18 DeKalb House delegation meeting.

The $450 goes toward covering travel expenses.

“A pay increase from $18,000 to $30,000 would ensure that the position of board member remains attractive to committed and capable individuals interested in becoming future members of the board,” a document of the legislative priorities states.

DaCosta previously said that it is well below the salary of comparable school districts and county officials and that they want to make sure that serving is attractive to future potential board members.

“Over a decade or two ago, the board of education had proposed a $450 per diem raise. It means that all the board members go throughout the school district, read to the children, go to our meetings – we have a business meeting, we have called board meetings, we have work session meetings, and then we also have committee meetings…,” DaCosta told the delegation in March.

In other DeKalb County legislative news:

– In February, the Chamblee City Council voted to support a resolution requesting that the Georgia General Assembly place a referendum on the Nov. 5 ballot that would allow residents of the Mercer and Embry Hills area to vote on annexation into the city of Chamblee.

At the time, state legislators told the mayor, city council, and the community in attendance at the Feb. 26 city council meeting that it was unlikely that the necessary legislation would pass this year even with very strong support.

The DeKalb delegation did not take up the annexation request, and no bills were filed this session.

State Sen. Sally Harrell (D—Senate District 40) and Rep. Scott Holcomb (D—Atlanta) have previously said that legislation to change a city’s borders takes time to get right and will require the support of the entire DeKalb legislative delegation.

Holcomb and Rep. Long Tran (D – Dunwoody) also said that it was not clear to them how strong support for the annexation plan is in the community. After a meeting that Holcomb and Tran attended on Feb. 12, both legislators said that the communications they received from residents did not demonstrate strong community support.

“I need to see a resounding clear voice,” Tran previously said.

– The Legislature passed a bill that renames the Stone Mountain Judicial Circuit to the DeKalb Judicial Circuit. If the governor signs the bill, it will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025.

– The General Assembly passed SB 577, which allows landlords to remove personal property within seven days after executing a writ of possession that removes a tenant and their personal property. This bill has also been sent to Gov. Brian Kemp to sign.

A landlord could remove the former tenant’s personal property that remains on the property or right-of-way. If a landlord does not remove the remaining personal property, the county marshal’s office would remove the items within 14 days.

Writers Jaedon Mason and Sara Amis contributed to this story.

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