DeKalb Schools Accreditation in Jeopardy?
Decatur Metro | August 9, 2010Um, yikes? From the AJC…
DeKalb County school board members insist they are not heading down the same path as Clayton County and will salvage the district’s accreditation.
“I’m not concerned about us losing accreditation,” board chairman Tom Bowen said Friday. “There will have to be a lot of back and forth with [the accrediting agency] and non-compliance on our part. I don’t see that happening.”
But many of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools’ concerns about DeKalb mirror the questions the agency had about Clayton two years ago, which led to its losing accreditation.
More HERE. Thanks to Nellie for forwarding.
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I know there are several areas of concern that SACS has raised with Dekalb Co. schools and that nepotism is one of them. I believe an issue of nepotism was raised during the last school board campaign, although I don’t recall the details. Does anyone know whether CSD has any nepotism policies in place to protect us from the apparent improprieties that have drawn the attention of SACS?
Does CSD really not have a nepotism policy? I find that hard to believe because most state and federal agencies do. Are we sure it isn’t buried in an ethics policy somewhere? The term nepotism may not always be used. Given that we are a small city, small school system, and a comparatively attractive place for educators to work, it’s natural that there will be husband-wife, parent-child, and other family relationships amongst CSD staff. So it seems especially important to have a clear policy, not to keep good staff out, but to maintain the confidence of staff and the community that no ethical breaches are occurring. Adhering and referring to a clear policy is often all that’s needed when there’s questions.
One caution: The nepotism policies I’ve seen seem limited to me. They only refer to direct reporting of a relative to another relative. It seems to me that one should go one step further and make sure that no one is supervising a relative of their own supervisor. That situation puts an employee in a very awkward position. They have to select, hire, supervise, rate, discipline, let go a relative of the person who supervises, rates, and disciplines them! Maybe a lawyer knows why most nepotism policies don’t cover anything but direct reporting of one relative to another.
Shades of Clayton County:
http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/dekalb-teachers-want-board-588491.html
I thought the vice chairwoman’s comment on nepotism was priceless.