Buckhead Parent Says School Board Must Keep Striving

The Atlanta School Board this week submitted its final report to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and its parent organization, AdvancED, on the APS system retaining accreditation.

Before making a decision on removing the APS high schools from accreditation probation, SACS representatives will make on-campus visits in late September. The announcement is expected in October.

Buckhead parent Julie Salisbury, a founder of the organization Atlanta School Board: Step Up Or Step Down, made the following address to the board this week. She submitted her remarks to Buckhead Patch for publication.

"I spoke before this group for the first time nine months ago. A few of us in different pockets of the community had found each other and come together with a common purpose — to ask our Board to Step Up, or Step Down in the face of the accreditation crisis.

Since that time, the organizing team behind our efforts grew to number 12 women, each representing different schools and neighborhoods in each school board district. Today, our Facebook page has more than 1,000 dedicated followers, and has had over 800,000 unique page views. Over these nine months, community presence at Board meetings has grown, as has media coverage of the Board’s progress.

This is all good news. The community has come together during this time of crisis — not always happy with you, but always working to encourage your efforts in support of our children. It’s great news that parents across socioeconomic lines, racial lines and district lines have come together to advocate as one, for the continuous improvement of our public schools. 

But the best news over these past nine months is that you all have Stepped Up. Each one of you in your own way has stepped up to answer the call of the dual crises facing us with accreditation, and the aftermath of the cheating investigation. 

After attending every meeting you’ve held during this time, our group can endorse the effort behind the SACS report you will submit this evening. 

You all were willing to understand that leadership change on this Board was necessary. The solid examples of Ms. (Brenda) Muhammed’s and Mr. (Ruben) McDaniel’s consensus-driven leadership has been nothing short of transformational.

Your collective understanding of the District’s need for a Superintendent who fell outside the scope of the search process you had under way, will make a long-term difference in how APS positions itself to serve our children for generations to come. Your selection of Erroll Davis and the trust you’ve placed in him to accomplish the daunting task ahead is commendable.

The spirit with which you approached mediation and the policy work is a great example of lessons learned. Your commitment to going outside to source experts and facilitators to avoid remaining mired in conflict is an example we hope this Board will remember and rely on for years to come.

But we must all resist the temptation to hang the Mission Accomplished banner outside the walls of 130 Trinity. There is much work to be done to change the perception of Atlanta as the Death Valley for public education. To become the Silicon Valley instead, we need your leadership, vision and guidance to move us into an era of innovation and accomplishment.   

When you turn in this report to SACS tonight, as tempting as it may be to wipe the sweat off your collective brows and exude a long group “Whew,” the work ahead is even more important. Because instead of breaking such a sweat by digging us out of a hole, you now have a chance to build something. Some of you on this Board may be architects of this vision; some may be called to move the earth, others to lay the foundation and still others to put the finishing touches on the penthouse. But this dream you have a chance to build is the one that’s still unspoken in the untapped minds of our youngest students.  Only you can plant the seeds that will allow him to speak the words of his future dreams. 

So don’t stop. Please. Step Up every day, and in every way. Step up for our schools; step up for our students, and Step Up for the value of public education in our society.