Commission wants to influence local school boards

The Commission on School Board Excellence wants more state involvement in local school boards. The commission was made up mostly of Atlanta and state business leaders and education experts. The group was formed this summer. The move came after the state found it had to sit idly by while the Clayton County school board’s bad management practices pushed that system into loosing accreditation.

The commission issued its’ report to the State School board today which spell out more state control. The recommendations include,

1. Create and ethics code for school board members.
2. Require management training to avoid micromanagement of schools.
3. Limit school boards to no more than 5 or 7 members .
4. Make elections non-partisan.
5. Stagger 4 year terms.
6. Allow the state board to intervene in mismanaged board.

The last point would require voter approval in a constitutional amendment, because Georgia’s constitution guards local control of education. The Georgia school boards association issued a statement saying it values the commission's work, but the group is weary of the details and how these recommendations would be implemented. Meanwhile the commission says it will begin writing bills to get the recommendations into law during the next legislative session. The state school board will discuss the recommendations at its meeting next month.

Education forums inform future leaders

A series of workshops wraps up this week, aimed at arming future lawmakers with the latest on Georgia’s education issues.

The Education Policy Forums are targeted at legislative and school board candidates across the state. Topics covered in the non-partisan workshops include policymaking, standards, education finance and leadership.

Bill Maddox is spokesman for Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education, one of the forum sponsors. He says candidates who have already attended workshops in stops including Dalton, Macon, and Valdosta found them eye-opening:

"So far in the seven we’ve delievered, the candidates who have been there have just...number-one they shake their head saying they can’t believe there’s so much information. And number-2 they felt much more informed".

The four remaining events this week are scheduled for Acworth, Athens, Savannah and Dublin.

State schools take on bomb threats

Officials in Augusta say their schools are getting far too many bomb threats.

They're joining school boards across the state in an effort to punish the parents of students who make those threats.

Officials say 70 bomb threats came in to schools alone in Richmond County last year.

The public safety response to each threat typically costs the county about $4000 to $8000.

The Georgia School Boards Association says bomb threats are a problem across the state.

Now, they want the legislature to pass a law holding parents accountable for a student's terroristic threats, school violence and theft.

"When we're taking and diverting resources from safety personnel to respond to a false alarm, that means someone else is not getting service and we are passing on a burden of cost to taxpayers that shouldn't be there, because of something that was not a real issue to them," says Dana Bedden, the Richmond County school superintendent.

The threats also disrupt classes, since principals often evacuate the students.

Suspects are often students, according to officials with the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.

In Richmond County, officials say some of the suspects are middle schoolers.