Atlanta school board plans to revive delayed coup

• Courtesy APS
• Reuben McDaniel, school board swinger?

Napoleon once said, “If you start to take Vienna — take Vienna.” In other words, you should be prepared to follow through once you launch a major offensive.

Last month, however, a five-member majority of the Atlanta Board of Edumacation backed off of an attempt to unseat its chairwoman after Mayor Kasim Reed implored them to delay their vote and ask state Attorney General Thurbert Baker for legal advice.

For reasons I don’t quite fathom, the nine-member board later changed its mind and voted not to ask the AG’s office whether a simple majority of five could remove Chairwoman LaChandra Butler Burks without violating the school system’s charter.

Now I’m told the original five revolutionaries plan to re-start their coup at tonight’s ABE meeting, despite not having the AG’s seal of legal approval. I’m also told, but haven’t been able to confirm, that the board’s General Counsel, Veleter Mazyck — who answers directly to Superintendent Beverly Hall — is currently engaged in parliamentary maneuvers to keep such a vote off tonight’s agenda.

The reason for this tug-of-war, you’ll recall, is the serious standardized testing scandal that has made the Atlanta Public Schools the subject of a high-profile state investigation. School board members I’ve talked to criticize Burks for not keeping them in the loop; they feel her removal would serve a need for transparency and public accountability and remove a barrier to reform.