Clayton School Board to Consider New Ethics Code

By Odette Yousef

Atlanta, GA – Clayton County's Board of Education votes tonight on a new set of ethics policies aimed at helping the system salvage its accreditation. The rules apply to more people in the school system, and go into more detail, than the existing ethics code.

The new policies adopt a detailed ethics code that Clayton County representatives wrote in a piece of local legislation that passed in the General Assembly's last session. That legislation also authorized the creation of an independent ethics panel to handle complaints, but so far, nobody's been assigned to that commission.

School system attorney Julie Lewis says the new ethics code in large part relies on getting that commission up and running:

LEWIS: It would still require them to police themselves and each others. We do need the Clayton County delegation, however, to finish their appointments so that we will have this commission in place.

The commission was supposed to have been appointed last month.

Lewis says current and new school board members will have to undergo training to learn about the new ethics code.

Clayton County's school board was told to clarify and follow its own ethics policies as one of several requirements to retain accreditation after September first.