Governor's office releases list of people who want to be on DeKalb BOE

DECATUR, Ga. — Gov. Nathan Deal's office released the list Thursday of the 403 people who want to become DeKalb County School Board members.

Channel 2's Erica Byfield went through the list and found the names of former politicians, former elected officials and countless parents.

The same day, Deal had a cyber-chat with 21 DeKalb County students, speaking to high school juniors and seniors from a conference room in his office, while the students met in a cabinet room within DeKalb County's School District headquarters.

The discussion lasted 70 minutes. Most of the students asked the governor about accreditation and their chances of getting into an out-of-state college if DeKalb's School System loses accreditation.

"You can almost say without exception you would not be able to be admitted," Deal told the students, "It is a very real concern and from my point-of-view, one of the motivations for making sure that loss of accreditation does not occur."

Earlier this week, a federal judge upheld the governor's decision to replace six suspended DeKalb County School Board members.

The nominating committee is expected to review the applications of all the possible replacement school board members as of noon Friday.

The chairman of the nominating panel told Byfield he hopes to reduce the list to 75 candidates later that evening.

http://bcove.me/a96avor9

WSBTV