DeKalb County Schools (Atlanta) -- Over 400 Applicants down to about One Dozen

When the State School Board decided that six members of the DeKalb County School Board (Atlanta, Ga) would lose their seats due to mismanagement, over 400 applications were received to fill those positions.  I wrote about it here and here.

News just in today?  A special committee tasked to recommend candidates to fill those seats should widdle that list down by the end of the day to about one dozen, or 2 for each seat, to be presented to the Governor.  Here's the article from the local WSBtv affiliate.



Of course, there are HUGE political and theoretical questions about the legitimacy, authenticity, and impact of a state-level board of Governor-appointed members retaining the authority to remove a local-level board of elected members.

Many of others go through my mind:

• Who is on the 5-person nominating committee that is making decisions about these candidates?  (Here's the Governor's emergency order authorizing the committee, Feb. 25, 2013).
• What's the scorecard or rubric used by the committee to recommend candidates? (Here's the balanced scorecard for the district, which I would give a 3 out of 5 for having the categories and measurable data but not it's easily understood nor does it delineate line-by-line progress indicators.)
• What's the breadth of experience the candidates bring to the table?
• What are the unwritten rules for what kind of candidate should be nominated to present to the Governor?  (It's likely we'll never know this one.)

In all fairness, because the Georgia Department of Education is a state agency under the executive branch of government, the requirements for extensive transparency are likely minimal.  That said, I'm still curious.