Sanderson Confident School Board Can Become Effective

Cobb County Schools Superintendent Fred Sanderson responded to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement’s request for an explanation of allegations that the board had acted unethically and lacked vision and leadership. Sanderson’s response letter was dated for Thursday, the last day the board had to respond to SACS.

SACS had been probing board deliberations in the wake of a number of contentious issues, including February's vote to revert to.

Sanderson, who is retiring at the end of the school year, wrote in a five-page response to AdvancED SACS CASI State Director Mike Bryans that while the approval process of the contentious district calendar change “was legal,” it "did not represent the spirit of effective governance.”

Sanderson wrote that the allegations against the board “raise genuine concerns about the Cobb County Board of Education’s ability to govern effectively. In my professional opinion, the board’s current structure is not effective.”

However, Sanderson did end the letter on a note of confidence, writing that he strongly believes the board can become effective if it continues its current course of ongoing training and addressing “the issues that have caused division and mistrust among the board and its stakeholders.”

Attached to this article in PDF form is the five-page letter in its entirety.

If the letter does not satisfy AdvancED, the parent organization for the school system's accrediting agency, the Cobb County School District could face a formal investigation that would put its accreditation at risk.

-East Cobb Patch Editor Wendy Parker contributed to this story.