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Clarke School Board quizzes acting superintendent on district organization

Members of the Clarke County Board of Education questioned Acting Superintendent Brannon Gaskins for the second night in row Thursday during a 4-hour work session centered around the school district’s organizational chart, and especially the number and roles of senior and mid-level management positions.

The district employs nearly 3900 staff members, and questions about whether teachers have a direct enough line of communication to district administrators came up at a special called board meeting on Wednesday focused on the district’s efforts to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The Board reviewed recently created organizational charts, and questioned Gaskins about the responsibilities of many upper-level director and coordinator positions, asking whether they overlap with each other, and whether they effectively serve school staff and students.

“How do all of these positions translate into student academic success?” asked Kirrena Gallagher, who represents District 2 on the Board of Education.

District administrators agreed with board members that a publicly accessible list of district staff, including names and job descriptions, would help the CCSD be more responsive to the public.

That responsiveness, as well as the district’s transparency with the community it serves, has been the focus of intense criticism in recent weeks, following an incident in which an assistant principal was said to have compared a pro-LGBTQ piece of student artwork to Nazi symbolism.

Martin Matheny is WUGA's Program Director and a host and producer of our local news program 'Athens News Matters.' He started at WUGA in 2012 as a part-time classical music host and still hosts WUGA's longest-running local program 'Night Music' which is heard on WUGA and GPB Classical. He lives in Normaltown with his wife, Shaye and dog, Murphy.
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