Politics & Government

Update: 74 from Stone Mountain, 60 from Lithonia Apply for School Board Seats

Jack Sartain and Denise McGill are among those who want to replace the six recently-suspended school board members. The city for two applicants is identified as Smoke Rise.

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Gov. Nathan Deal has released the names of the 400 people who are interested in replacing the six recently-suspended DeKalb county school board members, and many of them are from Stone Mountain (72 applicants; there are an additional two people whose city is identified as Smoke Rise, which is in unincorporated Stone Mountain) and Lithonia (60 applicants).

Among the applicants are Jack Sartain, co-founder of the DeKalb Council for the Arts, and in 2012 (Melvin Johnson won the seat in a runoff last August).

Find out what's happening in Stone Mountain-Lithoniawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"When I ran for District 6 my whole premise was, and I still believe, part of the main issue is the fact they [DeKalb county schools in general] don’t communicate and the parents in the community need to be informed," McGill told Patch Thursday.

"We need to be investing in our educators, our children and focusing on smaller classrooms - getting back to basics," she said. "One of the problems we have in this school system is putting all these funds into programs where we stifle the teachers' ability to teach."

Find out what's happening in Stone Mountain-Lithoniawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"I believe public feedback is definitely needed," McGill said. "You need to respect these communities. You need to listen to what the people have to say and work around amicable solutions for everybody."


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