Linda Schrenko’s partner in crime stays in jail
The AJC reports that the Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal of a man’s conviction for helping GOP gubernatorial candidate and state school superintendent Linda Schrenko steal more than $600,000 in Georgia public education funds.
Linda Schrenko as she headed to court. Her state-funded facelift looked good. AJC photo
The high court turned away an appeal today from computer firm owner A. Stephan Botes, who helped Schrenko steal more than $600,000 in federal education money geared toward programs for honors students and two schools for the deaf. Half the money went to Schrenko’s failed GOP gubernatorial campaign in 2002 and $9,300 went toward a facelift. The rest went to Botes’s computer consulting business. In 2006, Botes was sentenced to eight years in prison.
A colleague of mine once came back from a long interview with Linda Schrenko and made this prescient comment: “She doesn’t care about education. She cares about politics. That’s all she wants to talk about. That’s her passion, winning elections.”
He was right.
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© 2009 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
27 comments Add your comment
Warrior and Mom
October 5th, 2009
5:05 pm
She got took with her facelift. She is uglier now than before. She must have used a quack.
Been There. . . Done, well. . . just done!
October 5th, 2009
5:51 pm
While it may not be a requirement YET, I’d love to see a rule instituted which REQUIRES any candidate for school superintendant to have had A JOB in a school as a teacher or parapro, at a minimum, for more than one year. While it may not have prevented the fiasco with Ms. Schrenko (or Ms. Cox, for those thinking her performance doesn’t merit any cheers), maybe it will cause some rabid political hounds to think twice about running for such a post. At the very least, we’d be able to check on the background of their stay at the respective school(s), and research ‘close associates’ such as Mr. Botes.
catlady
October 5th, 2009
6:34 pm
How many years did Schrenko get? I have forgotten. We haven’t had a good state supt. in a long time. As jim d would say, “Smoke and mirrors.”
We should not have anyone in supervisory positions within the local or state educational systems who does not have significant teaching experience in the area they are supervising! (We know they have experience as students, at least till they were 16).
Maureen Downey
October 5th, 2009
8:08 pm
Linda Schrenko also received eight years.
ScienceTeacher671
October 5th, 2009
8:45 pm
I agree that supervisors should have experience teaching but since Linda Schrenko and Kathy Cox both began their careers as teachers, there probably should be other qualifications as well.
Echo
October 5th, 2009
9:21 pm
What about school department chairs/heads who have never taught and aren’t certified to teach?
NewParent
October 5th, 2009
9:49 pm
Can people actually become dept. chairs and superintendents without having first been in a classroom? That just seems silly to me. How are you going to run a system that you don’t have any first hand experience in? Sometimes common sense is totally lost on some people!!
Echo
October 5th, 2009
10:28 pm
@ Newparent…Yep!
Ed Prof
October 5th, 2009
10:43 pm
Enter your comments here Please note that certification rules are posted at http://www.gapsc.com
Teachers and department chairs must have a teaching certificate in their respective fields. Some may, however, be teaching on a non-renewable or permit status but they will need to complete an approved teacher education plan.
As for administrators, they too must be certified in a different category – leadership. The leadership certificate requires 3 years of successful teaching experience. There are exceptions however – Superintendents may work under a permit status with a minimum of a M.A. degree at the request of an employing school board. The State Superintendent of Schools is an elected official and not required to have any certification status. Voters are the choice here……
You may check the certification status of any educator by going to http://www.gapsc.com and clicking certification status and then simply type in the educator’s name.
Sarge
October 6th, 2009
2:05 am
YGBSM! 93 hundred bucks of state monies…actually property tax proceeds…for a facelift. Obviously, our state leaders (use of that term is to be taken with a high degree of trepidation and bone-in-throat mockery) don’t give a damn what the people of this looser state think of their morals; most-certainly of their collective fitness to make the right decisions for the benefit of the people of Georgia. Apparently, all this talk of the kids-the kids-the kids is a bunch of crap, for diverting that sum…any sum of ill-spent monies…to the purpose for which it was intended would probably serve to garner support, from the constituency, on any number of issues. It is no mystery that ANY further initiatives, drumed up by these LEADER IMPOSTERS, will be met by much doubt, for the true colors, of those who pretend to act in the best interest of the people, are vivid indeed. We now know that it’s a free-for-all in that dome, and to hell with everyone else. SLEEP WELL, MS. SCHRENKO, I am certain, because of your facelift, the kids will be all-the-more prepared to achieve scholarly heights.
ScienceTeacher671
October 6th, 2009
7:03 am
I’ve never seen a department head who wasn’t a certified teacher, but a neighboring county found ways of circumventing the administrator rule about 3 years of successful teaching experience, and so far as I know, a person who became certified in that county is still an administrator in Georgia with only half the teaching experience required. Another neighboring county, according to teacher friends, has an assistant superintendent with no certificate, but perhaps that person has permit status.
TW
October 6th, 2009
8:09 am
The legislature needs a zero as superintendent so they can continue getting away without funding schools.
Georgians, as a whole, simply don’t want good education. Sure, they give it lip service, but the GOP knows their audience when they say – ‘I believe Americans know what to do with their dollar better than the government.’ Works every time – hook, line, and sinker.
And as long as the art of ‘pander’ continues to replace that of ‘leadership,’ we will continue to swirl about the bowl.
The people of a democracy get the government they deserve.
Darn.
jim d
October 6th, 2009
9:31 am
“The people of a democracy get the government they deserve.”
True enough, but i thank God daily that we don’t get all the government we pay for.
Echo
October 6th, 2009
12:30 pm
There always seem to be exceptions & loopholes when it comes to education and certification issues.
Shananeeeeee Fananeeeeeeee
October 6th, 2009
1:31 pm
Ha Ha, more corruption.
what's right for kids???
October 6th, 2009
3:30 pm
And people wonder why many educators are cynical. Again~how can having that in office be best for kids? How can we even think about forgiving ourselves for voting for that? or for Cox? Well, at least Cox isn’t off having illicit love affairs with married me and face lifts with stolen money.
Reality 2
October 6th, 2009
5:52 pm
I don’t think you need to have been a good superintended, just as having been a good teacher would not necessarily mean a good superintendent. I think a part of the problem with superintendency is the fact that so many of them are washed-out or no-good teachers. We already have a very small pool of good teachers, and expecting superintendent from that small pool is asking for a miracle.
Joy in Teaching
October 6th, 2009
9:03 pm
We just got notice today that open enrollment for insurance starts this Friday. And–surprise, surprise! Insurance will be going up 10%. With that….plus the three furlough days that we’ve been forced to take and threats of up to 6 more after Christmas…I figure that I’ll be making close to 9% less this year than I did last year.
And yet…I had to stay today until about 4:30 for a meeting. And until 6:00 for the next two days for Parent/teacher conferences. And I didn’t get planning today as I was covering a class.
Why is Maureen focussing on everything else except the low morale of Georgia’s teachers? I’ve been teaching for 22 years and have never been this discouraged before. I’m just wondering how I’m going to finish out this year…much less teach for 8 more years until retirement.
ScienceTeacher671
October 6th, 2009
9:29 pm
What’s with the insurance anyway? We have to pay a premium for the child(ren) and another premium for the spouse, if any…which means that I pay more for one spouse and the one child still at home than the teacher next door pays for herself and 4 children. How does that make sense? If they’re going to charge extra fees, shouldn’t they charge by the number of other people, instead of by how those people are related?
Oh, Joy...
October 7th, 2009
8:52 am
…cry me a river – use that whine and cheese during your two week Christmas vacation, your 1 week spring break, and your 10 week summer vacation. Better yet, get a job where you have to work 49 weeks a year instead of 36. Then I may listen and be sympathetic to your “how am I going to make it another 8 years to retirement” whine!
TW
October 7th, 2009
9:42 am
Hey Mo – so we gonna talk about the cross-dresser at the Cobb HS, or what?
Private school guy
October 7th, 2009
10:04 am
We need an appointed state school super not an elected one. The Governor or an elected state school board should appoint someone who has had experience in curriculum, standards and in spending and alocating millions of dollars. If they mess up blame it on the Governor or the board. The US sceretary od Education is appointed. The appointment should be approved and veted by the General Assembly.
Maureen Downey
October 7th, 2009
10:08 am
It’s up TW. I hope you are with me. I think I am going to be nearly alone on this one.
Maureen
Maureen Downey
October 7th, 2009
10:57 am
Joy in Teaching, I am fine with talking about the low morale but it is not limited to teaching. In my lifetime, I have never known so many people out of work, from videographers to interior designers to builders to restaurant workers.
Teachers are actually riding out this storm in a better position than many other industries, especially building.
I am glad to discuss it, but I suspect that we could broaden the discussion to the morale problems in almost every industry. Also, I would be delighted if you wanted to write an entry that I could post. Just e-mail it to me at mdowney@ajc.com and I can post.
Maureen
SteveR
October 7th, 2009
11:48 am
My wife’s classroom just got lcd projectors and new screens last week. Now we find out all classes in Cobb will get interactive whiteboards by Dec. Out go the new screens just installed (sit them beside those satellite dishes out behind the school?). Apparently it’s SPLOST money, so it’s ok. And they wonder why there’s low morale when you have a school board making these executive decisions with our taxpayers money. All the wasted money could have gone to salaries, etc. Oh, did I mention the millions we’re paying for a “connected” attorney. Morale is the lowest it’s ever been.
Reality 2
October 7th, 2009
3:17 pm
If what she cares about is “getting elected,” then we can’t really say she cares politics, either. She just seems to be interested in herself, and that’s it.
Old Guy
October 7th, 2009
5:14 pm
What happened to the good ole days? No cell phones, no computers, and no hot teachers. But every teacher had, in his/her teaching arsenal, a paddle, a direct phone line (so it seemed) to every parent…and respect. Kids from the old school, among other things, managed to put Man on the moon and get him back in one piece…and without computers. Because those kids had no computers, they were compelled to have to think, to exercise judgement and, as called for, a little creativity in solving the problems du jour. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?