Schools

Board Says Goodbye To Ahmann

Garrett Goebel will be sworn into office Jan. 10.

ended more than eight years on the night, saying he hoped the board would step outside its comfort zone in a quest for excellence.

"We have to push ourselves even when the pushing is uncomfortable," Ahmann said. "If I'm going to leave something, it's to always push."

Ahmann has sometimes been the maverick on the board, questioning the administration and voting against the majority. Last month, for instance,

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Board members had good things to say about him Tuesday night. Board chairman Marc Wisniewski, for instance, noted that Ahmann was a leader in converting Decatur to a charter system. 

"I think that's done a lot to shape the agenda for public education in the state of Georgia," Wisniewski said.

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. , who beat in the Nov. 8 election, will take office Jan. 10.

At an hourlong, uneventful meeting, board members also talked about how the school system has been affected by  the the recent deaths of three young people who attended Decatur High.

died last Thursday -- Lewis in a wreck in Alabama, Nettles by drowning in St. Croix. In October, Dujon Parker was shot to death in Atlanta.

"It has hit us like a wave of stress," Superintendent Phyllis Edwards said. "It's something you don't accept and you don't get used to."

Board member Valarie Wilson said all those students were her son's friends.  Their deaths reminded her that "life is precious" and that "petty arguments must be put aside."

 


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