An undercurrent of distrust has long pervaded DeKalb County schools. Thanks to perceptions that the “other part” of the county was getting more resources, parents in north and south DeKalb were deeply suspicious of each other. It took a crisis to bring them together. In 2013, as DeKalb was threatened with the loss of accreditation, Parent Councils United formed. Today parents continue to work together as the system stays on track to regain full accreditation. They sponsored a town hall meeting and forums for school board elections, and they’re gearing up to provide input in the superintendent search. “We’re working on getting beyond biases of the way things have always been done,” says Allyson Gevertz, a north DeKalb parent who cochairs the group with Donna Priest-Brown, her south DeKalb counterpart.
