DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Within 24 hours, DeKalb County's Board of Education fired their superintendent and quietly swore in an interim leader -- now Georgia's top educational official is criticizing the move calling it a "step backward."
Former DeKalb superintendent Cheryl Watson-Harris was terminated Tuesday amid boiling tensions in the school district surrounding Druid Hills High School's renovations.
Georgia Department of Education Superintendent Richard Woods is now slamming the decision, saying it does not address the concerns of the community.
"In my April 25 letter to the DeKalb County Board of Education, I called on the governance team to work together to get all your facilities to a standard quality across the district," Woods wrote. "I also called on the governance team to 'empower Superintendent Watson-Harris to take swift and immediate action.'"
A day after his letter, the board held an executive meeting and announced they cut Watson-Harris' tenure short, voting on a separation agreement that went into effect immediately.
"Instead of moving deliberative and decisively in line with my recommendations, the board chose to largely meet this moment with dysfunction and deflection," Woods said.
The state superintendent's initial letter was written to address the state of Druid Hills High. Students released a now-viral video of the campus' condition, showing sewage leaks, electrical issues and even crumbling ceilings. Students and their families argued the school was on the priority list for renovations in 2022, but the school board voted to take it off in February.
That's when the Georgia DOE stepped in, sending an inspector, prompting the county leaders to bring up the issue again during its April 18 school board meeting. However, the school board rejected a proposal to modernize the school. Instead, the board lumped Druid Hills High with several other schools in line to get repairs. Those opposed believe the school needs more than simple updates.
Woods followed up with his initial scathing letter. He's now following up with stronger words.
"Also in my letter, I referred to the issues identified as 'an opportunity for DeKalb County Schools to restore trust with the community [and] enact bold and sweeping change to the way it maintains and invests in its facilities,'" he wrote, citing his initial letter.
"The events at yesterday's called meeting continue to erode not only the public's trust, but my trust in your seriousness to address the issues facing DeKalb County Schools," Woods said. "The board seems to have focused the bulk of its efforts on defining and parsing out the definition of 'cosmetic fixes' and blaming years of neglect and poor planning on a Superintendent who has only been at the post a short while -- certainly, the issues at Druid Hills High School and across the district did not originate during Superintendent Watson-Harris' tenure."
Woods said his team will be in touch to develop "immediate, short-term, and long-term plans for corrective action."
Watson-Harris became superintendent of the district in 2020. Dr. Vassane Tinsley is now serving as interim superintendent of DeKalb County Schools.