Another midstate school board under fire, could lose members
The Georgia Board of Education has called a hearing that could lead to the removal of the Hancock County school board members.
Mike Royal, the chairman of the state board, said the state has been working with Hancock County schools to resolve governance issues that officials reviewers have raised.
But the state board has now drawn a line: a May 4 hearing on whether they will recommend that Gov. Nathan Deal dismiss all five members of the Hancock County school board for cause.
“We feel like we need to have a public hearing on the state of the governance of the district,” Royal said Thursday, just after his board made the decision.
The hearing was triggered by poor reviews for Hancock County school governance from AdvancED, a school accreditation agency. It has put the system on probationary status, the last step before losing accreditation.
AdvancED findings dating to 2015 have involved things such as improper board operations and failures to follow good policies on hiring and firing.
In a September 2016 update, AdvancED still had new or continuing recommendations for the system.
“At this point, the repeated inappropriate behaviors, in violation of policy by the Hancock County Board of Education, have continued and have prevented any effective school improvement processes from being effectively implemented,” the September report reads.
The Telegraph could not immediately reach Hancock County’s superintendent or school board chair for comment.
In a February 2017 letter to AdvancED, an attorney for the Hancock County school district said the system is committed to the accreditation process and wants to fully cooperate in trying to meet all the improvement priorities set by the agency. But the letter also questioned some of the findings in AdvancEDs’ review.
In November, Deal suspended five members of the Dooly County school board after issues there.
Maggie Lee: @maggie_a_lee
This story was originally published February 23, 2017 at 5:45 PM with the headline "Another midstate school board under fire, could lose members."