I was able to speak with a member of the board
in the county in which I live. This
member has served on the local board for 3 years and is currently serving his
fourth term. The questions were:
1.
Do the statutes set by the State Board of
Education limit the authority of the local board?
2.
What
is your view of the relationship between the local board to the
superintendent’s management of the operations, organization, and resources of
the district?
3.
What
is the relationship between the superintendent and the local board?
I will answer these separately…
The
answer to the first question was yes; the mandates from the state do limit the
authority of the board. It requires the
local board to have to pay close attention to the Criterion Reference
Competency Test (CRCT). This state test measures
how well students acquire the skills and knowledge described in the Georgia
Performance Standards. The assessments
yield information on academic achievement of the students, schools, systems,
and state levels. This information is used to diagnose individual student
strengths and weaknesses as related to the instruction of the performance
standards, and determine the quality of education in Georgia. By comparing their result to other districts
in recent years they have been able to petition the state to release it from
some of the mandates. The state board
has released them from some of the mandates, but made them go into contract
with them and made the CRCT results as a means of accountability. If this is not done the state can control the
district. He also mentioned that the
state now has a charter school commission.
This board member felt that charter school took local tax money when the
charter was granted.
Matthew (Matt) Key, Georgia
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