Atlanta School Board Runoffs: Will You Vote?

Are you making plans to vote in next week’s runoff election? Possibly you’ve already taken advantage of early voting?

Or will you be like the majority of Atlanta residents who earlier this month took a pass on their right to vote?

For the Nov. 5 municipal election in which Atlanta voters cast ballots for mayor, city council president, 15 seats on the city council and nine seats on the Atlanta Public Schools Board of Education, turnout was only around 19 percent. That was a significant dip from the 30.5 percent that voted four years ago.

On Tuesday, Dec. 3, runoff elections will be held for four school board seats. Among those is race for the District 8 at-large seat, where Board of Education Chairman Reuben McDaniel, who garnered 36.74 percent of the votes in the five-person race three weeks ago, will face attorney and former co-president of North Atlanta Parents for Public Schools Cynthia Briscoe Brown (20.80 percent) in the runoff.

In the five-person race for the city-wide District 9 seat, attorney Jason Esteves (34.32 percent) and education business founder Lori James (30.72 percent) moved on to face each other again next week.

In southwest Atlanta, Georgia State University program director Eshé Collins led a four-person race with 35.97 percent of the vote and will face Dell Byrd (25.33 percent) in a runoff for the District 6 seat.

And in west Atlanta, counseling center director Steven Lee (36.87 percent) and academic coach Mary Palmer (36.34 percent) are also headed for a runoff after being separated by just 45 votes in the four-person District 5 race.

It’s been a tough few years for Atlanta Public Schools, which has endured a cheating scandal under former Superintendent Beverly Hall that has drawn national attention. Critics have also targeted a board that bickered amongst itself so much that it threatened the system’s accreditation, and also oversaw a district where only 51 percent of its students graduate in four years.

The next school board will face a host of challenges beginning in 2014, including selecting a new superintendent, tackling difficult budget issues, determining the role of charter schools, and last but not least, revamping an image that has left the system battered.

APS takes approximately 52 percent of your property tax dollars and tremendously influences the caliber of city’s public schools. That in turn drives home values and desirability.

So, do you plan to vote in next week’s runoff election?