EducationCEO's Blog

EducationCEO's Blog

And another one bites the dust!

April 18, 2010

It’s official! As of this past Friday, DeKalb County Superintendent Crawford Lewis’ contract was terminated by the school board amid allegations of less-than-legitimate involvement with the district’s construction bids. I am not surprised that he was fired, just surprised that he was able to serve as the superintendent for so long. Especially considering the manner in which he came into the position.
I first started working for the DeKalb County School Systemin August 2002; that was my first teaching job and I was excited about leaving South Bend for Atlanta. Yep, I was wearing some big-A rose-colored glasses back then! That year also marked the first year for then-superintendentJohnny Brown. Now I will say that Brown made a lot of (incompetent and probably lazy) people uncomfortable when he started in DeKalb because he was committed to making some significant changes, e.g., those who were not qualified or worthy of district-level positions were sent back to schools. No leader will be popular with the masses; Brown was no exception. I did appreciate his desire to clean-house because there were secretaries making nearly 6-figures when he came in, while degreed teachers were barely making $36,000. I also liked his challenge of teaching Algebra to all