Tonight, the Dallas County Board of Education will make a decision on the new principal at Southside High School. According to sources close to the school system, Gary Crum will get the nod.

One supporter said Crum will be named principal on an interim basis, and with just two weeks before school kicks into gear, it is important that our school system put someone in place.

We do not believe Crum is the right person, and we caution the Dallas County Board of Education and Superintendent Wayne May on placing a principal just because time has run out on filling the position.

On June 28, the Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts released an audit of the Dallas County School System. Two schools were singled out as having financial problems. Five Points Elementary School was mentioned on three separate occasions by the state. The principal at Five Points is Gary Crum.

According to the state, the principal at Five Points had taken responsibility for depositing money at the school. In that audit, the state said no deposits were made of concession sales for “several months.”

The audit said it could not tell how much money had not been deposited because there were no receipts for the money collected at Five Points.

Along with that concern raised by the state, 65 percent of the school’s expenses were not adequately documented and the school’s bank account was not reconciled with the general ledger.

Enrollment at Crum’s Five points is approximately

200 students. Southside High School is a 5A school with more than 500 students. Despite a less-than-acceptable audit of Crum’s school, the Dallas County Board of Education believes he is the right man to lead the second-largest high school in this county.

We think the board, in this 11th hour, should think one more time about the decision it will make tonight. We also think the board should consider the message it will send to members of this community if Crum is named principal.

Southside High School has struggled tremendously over the past few years — both in graduation rates and in finances. The state audit said Southside had outstanding bills and collectors came calling.

Crum was entrusted by the school system with a relatively small school and yet the state said his financial practices were questionable. Are we rewarding Crum for that lack of administrative control by giving him a bigger school with more money? There is no logic in that scenario.

Crum has an enormous amount of support in this community. He is the pastor of a 1,200-member church and the support should be expected. That support, it appears, has apparently overly influenced May’s decision. The superintendent appears ready to propose Crum as the next principal at Southside.

We have no doubt that Crum is a good person and cares about this community. We also believe that, one day, Crum may make an excellent principal at one of our larger schools.

At the same time, we must not hand out principal jobs like they mean nothing. They are important and Gary Crum has not yet proven that his is capable of becoming principal at Southside High School.