VOTE 2010 October 23, 2010
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www.crossroadsnews.com
Newcomers nab support in School Board races By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
All elections are important, but parents, business people, education supporters and the county’s teachers’ union say the Nov. 2 DeKalb School Board elections are extremely critical for the future of the district. Five of the board’s nine seats – Districts 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 – are up for re-election at a time when the school system has been battered by scandals and school closings, is suffering from low student achievement, is undermined by low morale, and is facing a SACS inquiry into nepotism and other issues. In history-making moves last week, eduKalb and the Organization of DeKalb Educators (ODE) issued endorsements that ditched three of the incumbents. Both organizations, who were endorsing candidates for the first time, picked just two incumbents, Dr. Eugene “Gene” Walker in District 9 and Jim Redovian in District 1. Instead of endorsing incumbents Sarah Copelin-Wood in District 3, Jay Cunningham in District 5, and Zepora Roberts in District 7, the groups picked from among their challengers. Political newcomers Corey Wilson got the nod over Copelin-Wood; Dr. Kirk Nooks triumphed over Cunningham, and Donna Elder garnered the nominations over Roberts. Copelin-Wood and Roberts have been under fire for bad behavior unbecoming to members of a school board that oversees more than 98,000 students. A video clip of Copelin-Wood berating employees about school closings went viral on YouTube, and Roberts was captured on tape threatening to slug a television reporter who was questioning her about her daughters’ employment with the school district. Both have apologized for their behavior. All three challengers who received endorsements and some of the other candidates on the ballot have kids in the school system. Wilson, a car dealership manager, has been active in his son’s elementary school PTA. Nooks is a college administrator who has a daughter in elementary school. Edler, an accountant, has a son and a daughter in the school system. The other candidates seeking to unseat the incumbents are Robert Holt in District 3; 23-year-old Jacques Hall Jr. in District 5; attorney and engineer Richard Gathany and Willie R. Mosley Jr. in District 7; and Ella “Coach” Smith in District 9. Since qualifying in July, Holt has been unresponsive and has not returned telephone calls or filled out questionnaires or showed up for any candidates’ forums. Hall, a 23-year-old Lakeside High School graduate with a financial background, is a volunteer at Southwest DeKalb and Arabia Mountain high schools. He is currently unemployed. Mosley has two kids in the school system. Smith is a Fulton County special education teacher; she lives in the city of Decatur.
Critical issues ahead Lorraine Brackery, a member of the Southwest DeKalb PTSA, said these elections offer voters the opportunity to get some new people with fresh ideas on the board. She said that we need people on the board who will implement the things that work across the system. “If we know that traditional scheduling works, why are we hanging on to block scheduling?” she said. “If you know some things that work, why aren’t they being implemented across the county. We need people
DISTRICT 3
DISTRICT 5
No response from candidate
Robert Holt
Corey Wilson
S. Copelin-Wood
Jesse Cunningham
Jacques Hall
DISTRICT 7
Donna Edler
Richard Gathany
Willie Mosley
Kirk Nooks
DISTRICT 9
Zepora Roberts
Ella Smith
Eugene Walker
Curtis Parker / CrossRoadsNews
Lorraine Brackery, a member of the Southwest DeKalb PTSA, queried District 5 and 9 School Board candidates during a forum at the school.
with the courage to improve the system.” Brackery said that it’s time for ineffective board members to vacate their positions. “It’s time to leave and make way for somebody else to try,” she said. Leonardo McClarty, executive director of the DeKalb Chamber of Commerce, said that education “is huge” this year on a number of fronts. “There is the anticipated budget shortfall next year, the hiring of a new superintendent, and the upcoming trials,” he said. “It is important to have school board members with the skill sets, qualifications and previous experience to make those decisions.” McClarty said previous experience does not mean service on the school board. “Experience is the things you have done in the past, your education, all of those of those things that hone in on your ability to ask the tough questions and make the tough decisions,” he said. The chamber is not allowed to endorse
candidates but many of its members are part of the nonprofit eduKalb. As voters head to the polls this week and on Nov. 2, McClarty said that they should be mindful that we will have to live for the next four years with the decisions that we make at the polls. “This is a critical time for the school system,” he said. “Voters should think beyond their district to how a candidate will represent the system. When school board members go to meetings in other counties and out of town, people don’t ask what district they represent. They represent the system. We have to think of how they represent the system and we must look at their ideas for moving the system forward.”
tion,” she said. “We need to have a board with new faces, new ideas who can hopefully bring some stability to the system. Duff said the system needs board members who will be more knowledgeable and will advocate for students and employees. “With the current board it took too long and a lot of different incidents for it to see that the concerns voiced earlier, before they made it into the media, had some validity,” she said. “We need people who are going to listen to us and act.” She said Copelin-Wood and Roberts did not answer ODE’s questionnaires or attend the interview sessions that they held to determine their endorsements. “We had no information on them to consider,” she said. System at a turning point In spite of the challenges facing the disNichole Duff, ODE’s first vice president, trict, Duff said that there are a lot of good the school system is at a turning point. things in DeKalb. “We are looking for a new superintendent “We are hoping to see things moving up and there have been changes in administra- again,” she said.