House Passes Legislation Affecting
DeKalb School Board Size 

ATLANTA, Ga., (April 11, 2011) - The Georgia House of Representatives today passed Senate Bill 79 with a vote of 109 to 62. State Representative Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur) not only voted for this legislation limiting the size of the DeKalb County school board, but she also spoke in favor of the bill on the House floor.

“In light of SACS actions, and governance and conduct issues of the DeKalb school board, I believe the size of the board should be reduced. I believe smaller boards serve children better,” said Rep. Oliver.

SB 79 would require minimum four year terms for local school board members. Additionally, this bill would require counties that have both a homestead option sales and use tax, as well as a county sales and use tax for education purposes, to have a county board of education made up of seven members from single-member districts. Finally, SB 79 would allow the governor to remove school board members when their school system is placed on probation or accreditation is lost.

SB 79 is similar to House Bill 22, which was introduced by Rep. Oliver. Both pieces of legislation sought to set an appropriate size for the DeKalb County school board. SB 79 will resolve this issue by requiring DeKalb County to reduce its school board size from nine members to seven members. HB 22 would have addressed the school board size issue by allowing DeKalb County voters to choose the most appropriate size of their school board through a referendum on the November 2011 DeKalb County general election ballot. Both HB 22 and SB 79 built on last session’s Senate Bill 84, which stated an ideal school board size of seven members.