State Board of Education takes over Dallas Co. School District

From the West Alabama Newsroom–

The Alabama State Board of Education votes for the immediate takeover of the Dallas County School District.

The intervention comes after an audit found the school district failed to follow the proper procurement procedure — to the tune of about $12 million dollars.

“It’s no accusation about somebody taking the money and running off, it’s just that the money was not spent using the proper procurement processes, allegedly,” said State Superintendent Dr. Eric Mackey.

It’s a big concern for me. Because you may know, the way our state constitution is written county boards of education are arms of the state. And so, if a county board cannot pay it’s debt, that becomes a state debt,” he said.

It’s a financial problem that a declining student enrollment within the district — makes even worse.

“Because they have less and less and less and less money coming in every year, because they are losing students, and of course your state funding is based on the number of students you have.

And so, their finances are declining, they have this possibly big debt that they have to pay,” said Mackey.

“It’s going to be quite a knot to untangle.”

Dr. Daniel Boyd will act as the Chief Administrative Officer for the Dallas County School District — during the intervention.