Brack: Meandering Gwinnett school board raises questions.

Elliott Brack of Gwinnett Forum is back with an editorial expressing his concerns with the direction Gwinett’s School Board has taken of late:

There are several significant matters that worry us. Among them:

• Will Gwinnett be able to continue to adequately fund its operations, since it is taxing property owners at 19.2 mills, with a 20 mill statewide limit? (This limit on school funding was imposed by the Legislature years ago.) School districts can only exceed this limit by voter approval, after authorization by the Legislature.
• Will voters continue to approve E-SPLOST funds for the certain growth of the district, and the need for funding of new schools, in view of the ramifications of a split board? 
• How would the system pay for new schools without E-SPLOST funds? Is overcrowding a certainty in the future?
• Will all this upheaval show itself in the lowering of the quality of the education of students?
• Can the school board attract a superb superintendent in view of the recent firings?  Would you want to jump into this situation?

I share many of Brack’s concerns. Like most communities in Georgia, a good school system is essential to economic growth. A good school system requires good leadership. Firing two Superintendents in four years is a troubling trend.

Superintendent Watts attempted some policy changes at GCPS that didn’t work, most notably a discipline policy called “restorative justice.” But mostly Watts ran GCPS like the Superintendent he replaced, Alvin Wilbanks. Will the next Superintendent return to implementing the policies that made Gwinnett a top-flight school system? Does the majority on the Board of Education, who fired Wilbanks and Watts want that? Add those questions to the list Brack compiled.

This is a pivotal moment in Gwinnett’s history. The decision the Board of Education makes could dramatically impact our county’s future.