DeKalb County Schools superintendent takes questions from parents, taxpayers
DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. (FOX 5 Atlanta) - The superintendent of DeKalb County Public Schools was in the hot seat Thursday night at a question and answer session with parents and taxpayers in Lithonia.
It was called On Scene with Dr. Green. It was held at Redan Middle School where some people focused on the Districts proposed General Obligation or GO Bond while others called for an audit to follow the money.
Willie Pringle, with the group Restore DeKalb, was among the first to take the microphone.
"You really need to just because you had no idea what you stepped into," Pringle told Superintendent Dr. R. Stephen Green.
The Superintendent tackled affronts and questions about the proper use of taxpayer money.
Pringle and others believe he and other board members should step down now.
"They need to go because they're not really being true to our taxpayers where our money is going," said Pringle.
He and others are calling for an audit, raised among protestors at an earlier public input session on a proposed 15-year general obligation, GO bond for $265 million for various district infrastructure upgrades, repairs and add ones.
"We welcome any kind of an audit. I think the impression or implication seems to be that the money was somehow siphoned away or lined somebody's pocket or whatever, that is absolutely unequivocally untrue," said Superintendent Green.
He has indicated he'll step down in July of next year after five years after stepping into a troubled district.
"There was no curriculum there's now a bonafide curriculum, we were not fully accredited we're now fully accredited, tests scores are on the rise," said Superintendent Green.
Another topic of concern was potential violence after numerous school lockdowns this year in the district.
"My family, I'm afraid to send my kids to school anymore," said one woman at the microphone.
Dr. Green said he hopes to bring in various new security measures before he leaves.
"I see all of it not just what happens every day but I see what's happening at other schools," he told the crowd.
However, he would not say what his next chapter will be after he leaves the district.
"I will announce it when the time is time," he said.
Dr. Green said Thursday nights On Scene with Dr. Green was the first of seven for the year.