School closings can pain parents more than children
The anguish of south DeKalb parents over the possible closings of their schools is shared by thousands of families nationwide as the recession settles a cloud of gloom over schoolhouses everywhere. On the heels of the news that the Kansas City, Mo., district will close almost half its schools, Detroit is now considering shuttering 45 schools during the next five years, reflective of an expected 30,000 pupil drop in enrollment.
In this economic maelstrom, school closings are unavoidable, but they have to be done fairly and openly. There is no way to avoid the pain. Some families will have to give up beloved schools, easy commutes and familiar teachers.
I do think that children adjust far better than we do to school reconfigurations. My own system shut down elementary schools, created fewer k-3 schools and one large 4-5 school that is sort of a middle school with training wheels. (All the students in my town now come together as of fourth grade, which supposedly will make their en masse transition to middle school easier. )
I am still nostalgic for the old k-5 system that my older two children went through, especially since the elementary school is 30 seconds from my house and made mornings unhurried and relaxed. But my twins never knew that system where each grade only had about 44 students, so they are comfortable with a fifth grade class of 225 students. I have interviewed children who have been shifted to new schools and most are fine with it, as long as classmates from the old school were also reassigned and are in their classes.
I know that is not much consolation when parents are in the midst of losing their local school to budget cuts. At a meeting last night, DeKalb parents voiced their concerns:
According to the AJC story on the emotional gathering,
Each parent brought their own argument why their local elementary school stands out and should not be closed.
“I treat the school like it’s my house,” said Tiffany Holloway, president of the Sky Haven Elementary School PTA. “I’m not going to let a mortgage company come in and take my house.”
The 20-member Citizens’ Planning Task Force is charged with reviewing data and recommending at least four elementary schools to close at the end of the school year. School officials have proposed two scenarios for the closings, involving seven schools – all in south DeKalb.
Meadowview first grade teacher Teresa Favors said she was disappointed that the schools are being chosen for closure based on location, enrollment and money – and not student achievement.
“The south is learning just like the north end of the county,” she said. “If you close this many schools in the south end of the county, where are our children going to go?”
School officials say the closures are necessary to help with an anticipated $88-million deficit. The four school closures are expected to save about $2.3 million.
School board members say they want to increase that savings and are looking at closing as many as 12 schools over the next two years.
On Tuesday night, the task force voted to take 63 of the district’s 83 elementary schools off the closure list because they are at capacity. Two of the proposed schools were removed from the list: Midway and Toney. But no decision was made on closures. That won’t come until next month.
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78 comments Add your comment
David S
March 17th, 2010
11:36 am
Again, another positive of a private education system with the flexibility to address economic conditions that a top-down government bureaucracy can never effectively handle.
With central planning and govnerment making decisions, the only option the parents have is to beg for their schools to be left open. There is no opportunity to band together, make suggestions, hold charity fundraisers, step in an provide voluntary services to offset costs, or any of the thousands of options that a private system would have at its disposal.
David S
March 17th, 2010
11:39 am
Not that parents seem to mind lobbying for more money to be taken from everyone in society to pay for the services that they benefit from. They certainly aren’t suggesting that every parent just send in another $500 per pupil or something to offset the budget shortfall.
Elizabeth
March 17th, 2010
11:48 am
Nobody wants to spend more money on education but nobody wants to lose anything either. No one wants to give up anything but all I hear is how bloated the system is and how teachers make too much money.Then when smeone tries to do something to cut the bloat, parents whine. As usual cuts are fine except when it hurts them or their little coddled darlings.
amazed
March 17th, 2010
12:09 pm
Oh don’t get me started on that one!! Your right! They would squawk about the $500. My goodness I wish my childrens private educations were just $500 each a year! We have lived in a society for far too long that believes everything is owed to us. What do you mean that we have to buy susie a cell phone, should the government flip that bill too??? Just teasing, but this is how the government has trained our minds to think! Everythings for free hey!! I keep hearing people say…my childrens school is great!! Then I read everyday how things are so bad, I am not sure if it is that parents are trying to convince everyone else to believe this or just to make them feel good about sending your children to a school that they question themselves everyday. I get so tired to hear my school got AYP. Come on people this means ADEQUATE YEARLY PROGRESS. I guess thats o.k. if you are just happy with your child receiving an ADEQUATE education..definition..To equalize. Meet basic requirement of what was expected to learn. I would hope so! These are very minimum standards. These are Georgia requirements. Which from what I am hearing will even be cut further down years to come. So if we are now 46th in the country for education scores, with cuts I am sure we will improve up the ladder??? Then again all the increases in funds Georgia has gotten over the years doesn’t seem to have improved this, maybe we can do more with less!
Ann
March 17th, 2010
12:19 pm
I think the biggest complaints have to do with the process the county is using for these closings. It started with data from county provided to the task force. Then the task force decided they weren’t happy with the original data (didn’t include all schools). So, last night the task force was trying to clarify how to narrow down the list according to the criteria they feel is important (as opposed to what the county specified). This is a job that needs to be done by professionals. It shouldn’t be done by emotions. It should consider much more than capacity and the state’s magic number of 450. The task force’s confusion and reopening of the criteria has understandably ignited anger. This has not been done professionally or in a manner that would help the parents understand why it has to be done.
old teacher
March 17th, 2010
12:22 pm
It only makes sense to close the smallest schools, then the schools that need the most renovation. I love small schools also..loved teaching in them, but we must look today at the cost.
I also loved older configurations..I have worked in K-7 schools and K-8 schools and loved both. Middle schools are now the norm, no matter how we feel..I did not like the 6-8 configuragtion and assuming the children could not assume responsibility over themselves…They did in the past and sat in their seat and behaved…
old teacher
March 17th, 2010
12:23 pm
And I should have added did homework, classwork, and learned.
ed
March 17th, 2010
12:45 pm
Furloughing teachers and closing schools–Boy have the General Assembly done will the last eight years. I don’t understand why PAGE and GEA have not at least try to sue the state. This is part of the law “Such contracts when tendered
21 to each teacher or other professional employee shall be complete in all terms and
22 conditions of the contract, including the amount of compensation to be paid to such teacher
23 or other professional employee during the ensuing school year, and shall not contain blanks
24 or leave any terms and conditions of the contract open.” Notice all terms 190 days is what the teachers signed for, not 183 days.
jsmith
March 17th, 2010
12:55 pm
cant they cut the waste from other places in the county budget?? the schools should be the last place they cut spending in my opinion
Ann
March 17th, 2010
1:12 pm
They aren’t closing only the smallest – they are considering utilization. There are schools with capacity of 350 that are over capacity at, say, 375, that will not be closed b/c they are fully utilizing the space even though they will never, ever reach the “magic” number of 450 for state funding.
Edugator
March 17th, 2010
1:19 pm
The public schools are essential to our nation’s future. Who’s going to open a private school targeting kids who yearn to make C’s, are unmotivated, and aren’t athletic? How will privatization improve life for those with disabilities? If we want a strong, well-educated, society, a place where the cashier at McDonald’s can deliver the correct change, and who also knows who Julius Caesar was, we need to focus as a nation on educating everyone. This country needs to ante up and pay what’s needed to make education effective. We won’t achieve that as a nation with home schooling and private schools only.
With that said, school closings happen, and these need to happen in DeKalb. While I’d hate to see DeKalb go the way of Gwinnett and house students in super-sized schools, a number of these small schools need to be merged to allow for more efficient services and financial savings. The county has done it before (remember Briarcliff HS?). After all, the tax payer dollars should be spent as efficiently as possible for the benefit of the people.
Dekalbite
March 17th, 2010
1:23 pm
DCSS is proposing closing 7 schools this year to save on building maintenance costs, yet in her 5 budget proposals Ms. Tyson does not have any cuts to the support and maintenance personnel. Where will DCSS see a savings if there are no cuts in admin and support (8,800 of them)? Is she only counting on teacher positions being eliminated if DCSS shutters these schools?
Ms. Tyson’s budget proposals:
http://dekalbparent.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/budgetpresentation.pdf
Does anyone know how many support and maintenance personnel Ms. Tyson has calculated DCSS can cut if they shutter these schools and what the savings to DCSS will be? I did not see this in her various proposals to the DeKalb BOE.
Angela
March 17th, 2010
1:37 pm
As long as DCSS insists on keeping admin and support at 8,800 employees, they will have to decrease teaching positions and shutter schools. 1,239 Central Office employees is just too top heavy.
Looking at it another way, currently, we have 61 admin and support per school and 49 teachers and Media Specialists per school.
When did the DCSS administration lose their focus on the schoolhouse and become a “jobs machine” outside the schoolhouse?
When did parents/taxpayers take their eye off the ball and let thousands of jobs migrate from the schoolhouse to the Central Office and Maintenance?
Look at the personnel figures DCSS publishes:
http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/superintendent/files/795BF9ED3F3D479294A6DD1DE042E5C9.pdf
Worst President EVER!
March 17th, 2010
1:55 pm
The comment one of the south Dekalb parents made on TV this morning that “for every school closed in south Dekalb, they should close one in north Dekalb” is about the most ignorant thing I’ve heard – stupid idiot.
DigALittleDeeper
March 17th, 2010
2:04 pm
I’m hoping a charter school will come into the South Dekalb area that has been hit hard by closure. Then watch the school board and surrounding schools squawk about money and students taken out of their system.
TO: All parents in the South Dekalb area, please contact one of the many charter schools that are looking for new students and location. The local school systems have been complaining about such systems coming in and taking funding and/or students. Get it together and make it happen.
teacher man
March 17th, 2010
2:04 pm
They don’t care! Just like Clayton County doesn’t care about teachers. Due to budget cuts some teachers will not be rehired. However, they are waiting till after the CRCT to inform even though they already know….so the teachers will keep teaching. There are many things wrong with this on many levels. Clayton County is AWFUL!!!!!!! If that is true, thank Dr. Heater!!!!!!!!! I hope you get fired!!!!!!!!!!
Truth
March 17th, 2010
2:17 pm
The BoE in DCSS needs to go. They appointed these committee members to take the fall on the school closings. What qualifications do your average parents and community members have to make these tough decisions. Central office needs grow a backbone and make the cuts by closing under-enrolled schools, cutting the jobs programs for friends and family in the central office, period. End of discussion.
Nora
March 17th, 2010
2:22 pm
@David S:
I’ll refrain from saying what I think about people with your attitude, but I want to point out that education benefits everyone in our society, not only parents. You might be living an “independent” lifestyle now, but you will be old and/or ill one day and the people who care for you will be the children whose educations we are paying for today. The people run the government, enforce the laws, and run the businesses that keep our economy going 20 or 30 years from now are the children we are educating today. The cost of educating children is an investment in OUR future.
LydiasDad
March 17th, 2010
2:41 pm
Vouchers would solve this real quick. But the libs don’t like it because it will force the public schools to compete–eg., to spend less time teaching about MLK, Jr, and more time teaching math, science, and english.
LydiasDad
March 17th, 2010
2:44 pm
As always, the problem isn’t money–it’s discipline. But the libs don’t want to talk about that either. A Catholic nun can run a class of 60 kids easily because of discipline. Let’s see a public school try that. The kids will take over because the parents and admin don’t want to get sued.
Chris
March 17th, 2010
2:47 pm
I really wish people wouldn’t just make blanket statements about teachers making “too much money.” Are there some teachers who make too much money? Sure. But the stories you all hear of about these teachers with 10 students making 100,000 are wild exaggerations. Most teachers I know have between 3-8 years service time and make around $35,000, pre furloughs/taxes. It’s a decent living but it’s not this massive bloated system.
And a lot of the administrative/support stuff stems from requirements under NCLB or state “requirements” for graduation coaches, support services, etc…Administrators make a little bit of money but think about this – if a person is the manager of a company with 300 employees and a multimillion dollar budget – they’re going to get paid comparable salaries to the private sector.
If you want to cut spending in schools eliminate the stupid stuff – training seminars, travel for workshops/conferences and do away with a lot of the bureaucratic requirements – testing is major expensive. Local boards have zero flexibility with this because of state/federal requirements.
David S
March 17th, 2010
2:53 pm
Edugator – As always, answering the questions the free market has yet to be asked. And please do not incorrectly state that we have a free market. In education as with everything else, we do not.
Who will educate those that don’t fit into the “perfect student” mold? Anyone with the talent, skills, and desire to make some money. Who would possibly want to sell only inexpensive products made in China to folks who don’t want to spend more than a buck? The Dollar Store, that’s who.
I know, now you will say that I am equating educating kids with “C” aspirations to running a Dollar Store. Nothing of the kind.
First, maybe those kids only aspire to C’s in the government school system. Maybe it takes the kind of innovative approaches that a truly free market would generate to address the lack of student motivation. God knows the inflexible, Washinton DC mandated curricula, government school system can’t.
And what about all of the folks who spoke of? The disabled, the blind, the mentally-challenged, the poor, the non-english-speaking, whatever you want to mention. Fair question.
If you were asked 30 years ago what sort of products would be sold in electronics stores, or what clothes would be popular or anything else in the marketplace today, you would likely have come up with significantly wrong guesses. That’s not to bash you, but simply to point out that one cannot imagine what others might come up with as ideas or educational alternatives.
With a private educational market there would be consumer monies available. Those with the special skills (like having done it before in the government system) would likely advertise their ability to properly teach the blind, deaf, mentally challenged, etc. Others might even seek out the discipline problems charging an extra fee for supplying the right solutions. I knew parents who gladly paid for military school to address such problems when I was growing up.
And then there is the significant presence of charitable schools. With a significant reduction in costs for businesses all over the country, many would gladly make the investment in educational opportunities they felt were worthwhile (as many do today, despite the high tax burden). The plight of the “less fortunate” would likely be a great draw for retired educators or those with additional time who would relish the challenge of addresssing these special needs.
One can never say. But for sure, when a particular school came asking for assistance for a charitable program (scholarship, etc.) they would not have to compete with the government schools that had already taken substantial monies for their failing schools.
Folks who support an end to taxpayer funding of government run schools are not asking to take something from everyone else. We are just asking that you stop taking from us.
mmm
March 17th, 2010
3:14 pm
Many (but not all) of the committee members are more committed and smarter than the DCSS central office staff. But a committee appointed by BOE members also allows them to spike it with individuals that reflect the views of the different board members. The ones that you hear quoted in the paper complaining are not the ones I am describing as committed and smarter.
Angela
March 17th, 2010
4:01 pm
@ Chris 2:47 pm
There is 1 administrative position for every 5.5 teachers in DeKalb Schools. I don’t think NCLB is responsible for that. There are 1.25 admin and support employees for every teacher in DCSS. Ask any teacher in DCSS the level of service they and the students get from the support personnel. I can understand why parents with schools closing are upset. Neither the superintendent nor the DCSS BOE have proposed cuts in support personnel before cuts to the classroom.
David S
March 17th, 2010
4:16 pm
Angela – NCLB is probably not completely responsible for the high numbers of administrators, but I can assure that it has contributed as much as every other federal regulation has contributed.
Back when I lived in California, I spoke with the Superintendent of Schools for the County of Riverside (east of LA). I don’t remember all of the years in question, but he told me that about 10 years back (would have been around 1985), he had to deal with about 10-15 regulations coming out of Washinton per year. Now in 1995 he had to deal with about 1000 per year! he said that his staff alone had ballooned from about 5 to about 300 and not a single one of them did any teaching. Worse he said was the fact that state politicians, not wanting to be seen as doing nothing in the face of all the federal government actions, in many cases duplicated the same requirements with just enough twist to make them different mandates. He said that administration at every school had grown similarly as every location had to administer the regulations as well. He knew exactly where the problems originated, and it wasn’t with him, the teachers, or the parents. It was with the politicians in Washington DC and Sacramento (and here in Atlanta).
I have no doubt that nothing has changed and that is has only gotten worse.
Many were deeply upset when the republicans promised to abolish the Dept. of Education and many said they were against the students and education for their agenda. Of course, like every republican promise of smaller government, these were hollow too. But can one really say that getting rid of the reason why so many administrators are needed be working against the students. I am no supporter of government schooling, but calls for truly local control must require the elimination of federal intrusion (and the DOE) and state micromanagement as well.
David S
March 17th, 2010
4:20 pm
Unfortunately positions in administration provide a good hiding place for teachers who no longer want to be in the classroom. They offer higher pay, less responsibility, and better job security. As a result, the teachers themselves have incentive to support maintenance of administrative positions. Of course it is rarely the good teachers that support adminstration. Just the lousy ones, but you see the conflict of interest.
Maybe these budget battles will finally get more support from teachers for politicians that wish to cut federal ties, cut state micromanagement, and want to eliminate the roles for overpaid administrative staff.
David S
March 17th, 2010
4:30 pm
LydiasDad – I used to be a supporter of vouchers as a mechanism to finally get the government schools to have to compete for business. I now am solidly against vouchers for one simple reason – the funding.
Government schools are now funded through involuntary taxation (theft I prefer to call it). Vouchers will be funded the same way. The morality of this aside, the government has never in its history ever allowed the money it has taken from the productive sector to be spent in a free manner on anything by anyone. Even the GI bill placed requirements on schools, GI loans are frought with miserable regulations, and you can be sure that any school accepting these vouchers will have to comply with the ever-changing regulations dictated by the party in power either at the state house level or the school board level. We already hear about restrictions on freedom of religion and other aspects of potential curricula. With the spector of so much available money, the only schools that will be able to resist the pressure to “comply (or conform if you will)” will be the already pricey private schools that will simply raise their tuitions to insulate themselves from the rest of the populace.
In short, the strings that come with vouchers will be used to hang the private school industry and will ultimately result in a private sector as burdened with regulations and requirements as the current government system. The resulting failures will be inevitable. That may be in fact what some supporters of vouchers may be hoping for. Best to rethink your position. I understand the desire to get back some of the money you have paid out on the system you don’t use. My parents did the same thing for 12 years and it made them mad too. Thankfully the schools I attended were able to be the kind of schools THEY wanted to be, not the schools the government demanded they be.
David S
March 17th, 2010
4:52 pm
Nora – I won’t refrain from saying what I think about people with your attitude. You have been economically and politically corrupted by the very system you support. Unfortunately you understand little about business and the market so you have embraced the false belief that without government providing a “free” education to everyone there would be mass ignorance throughout the country and no education for anyone. That is like saying that without government micromanagement of the food supply there would be no food. That is exactly what they believed in the former Soviet Union and so the government managed all food production. If you need to be reminded of the bread lines, etc. please see the wonderful documentation on the internet. In the US, food production is managed from farm to table by the private sector. Government manipulates prices through subsidies and the like to pay off its friends, but despite that we have the greatest abundance of food at some of the cheapest prices on earth.
Today with the internet (making learning materials available at ridiculously low costs), the overabundance of commercial and private residential property, the vast wealth and charity that this country still manages to maintain despite everything, there is absolutely no reason why anyone who wanted to get educated would not be able to without a single government finger being lifted (except to enforce contracts and punish fraud – though private options for these are also well written about).
I know that it comforts you to think that EVERYONE benefits from government education. The truth is that everyone suffers from government education. We are all taxed WAY too much for a service that could be provided in a far superior and less expensive way by the private sector. Billions are wasted in battles with the customers (parents) over book banning, uniform requirements, bussing, school closings, prom cancelations, and you name it.
Yes, as a whole everyone benefits from the general education of the populace. I myself benefitted from a great education, and I benefit everyday from the actions of educated people performing jobs that I am voluntarily exchanging money for. But the private businesses that hire these people have a vested interest in making sure they are well-trained, and if that required additional education on their parts (as it often does) they provide it. Those people raising children would recognize the need for their children to be educated and would make sure it would happen. Even those kids who might not have supportive parents would see the value of education around them and would have far more ample and flexible options to gain that education. When something is “free” is it rarely valued as much as when it costs something. That is because its value is “zero.”
Ultimately I suspect that you enjoy your memories of government school and you certainly appreciate the fact that a minor amount of money from a household can “pay” for the education of many children (conveniently leaving out everyone else who has to pay more). That is just socialism. It has its appeals, but the free market will address the needs if only someone would give it the chance to.
Fairness Please
March 17th, 2010
5:17 pm
I question the selection of the school on the closure list. Why are the selected schools only in South DeKalb when there are many schools in North DeKalb with equal or lower student enrollment? I question why the criterion of low student enrollment is not being fairly applied through the county. Why is North DeKalb being exempt? Review the enrollment in the following North DeKalb schools:
Laurel Ridge Elementary- 347 students
Livsey Elementary – 354 students
Ashford Park Elementary -380 students
Briar Vista Elementary – 391 students
Midvale Elementary-397 students
Kingsley Elementary – 400 students
Hawthorne Elementary- 425 students
Briarlake Elementary – 430 students
Source- http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us
Dunwoody Mom
March 17th, 2010
5:22 pm
As has been explained over and over again, other schools close to those cannot handle the extra students. In fact, there are schools in South DeKalb with low enrollments which are not being considered for closing due to the same conditions. STOP MAKING IT ABOUT NORTH VS SOUTH.
Dunwoody Mom
March 17th, 2010
5:26 pm
Fairness Please, where were you 15, 20 years ago when the schools in North DeKalb were being shut down?
Dunwoody Mom
March 17th, 2010
5:29 pm
Oh, and to answer your question since my first reply seems to be “lost”. The schools you listed, which only Kingsley and Ashford Park are actually in North DeKalb, are not being discussed because the closest schools to them cannot handle the extra number of students. This is the same reason schools in South DeKalb, which are also under-enrolled are not being considered for closure since their neighbor schools cannot handle the extra number of students either. This North vs South argument is old, old, old and wrong, wrong, wrong.
Fairness Please
March 17th, 2010
5:30 pm
What does the corrlate to the current enrollment?
Fairness Please
March 17th, 2010
5:31 pm
error-”correlate”
Fairness Please
March 17th, 2010
5:35 pm
I have a difficult time believing that these schools were built with less than a 600 student capacity.
Fairness Please
March 17th, 2010
5:36 pm
@Dunwoody Mom, My response was not “lost”.
Dunwoody Mom
March 17th, 2010
5:39 pm
Many, many of the older ES are far below 600 in student capacity, as you can see by reviewing the following link:
http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/public/cptf/files/03-16-2010/Matrix_All_ES_Corrected.pdf
There is a lot of information on the DCSS website. It might be worth your while to review. Here is the link:
http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/public/CPTF/
Fairness Please
March 17th, 2010
5:43 pm
The point is why should the South DeKalb schools which by coincidence are predominately Black schools close while the above listed schools which by coincidence are predominately white schools continue to operate under capacity?
Fairness Please
March 17th, 2010
5:52 pm
The purpose of closing the schools is justified as a cost cutting measure. All schools under capacity are not fully funded, thus, the county pays the difference. DeKalb is predicting an 88 million dollar budget shortfall. Why should the burden be shifted to one area of the county? Why not close all the schools under capacity schools, regardless of the location?
Fairness Please
March 17th, 2010
5:57 pm
(correction and addition)-The purpose of closing the schools is justified as a cost cutting measure. All schools under capacity are not fully funded, thus, the county pays the difference. DeKalb is predicting an 88 million dollar budget shortfall. Why should the burden be shifted to one area of the county? Why not close all the schools under capacity, regardless of the location? In other words, be fair in the school closure selection process.
Dunwoody Mom
March 17th, 2010
6:31 pm
Fainess Please, none of the schools you listed above are predominately white.
Fairness Please
March 17th, 2010
6:40 pm
I am very familiar with these schools. I know the demographics of the student population. The point remains the same, Why not close all the schools under capacity, regardless of the location? In other words, be fair in the school closure selection process.
OldTimer in DeKalb
March 17th, 2010
6:47 pm
Fairness Please, unless you look at the complete picture, the data you provided is without context. When considering schools to close, you must also consider where the children will go. You must look at the neighboring schools to see if students can be accomodated there, hopefully without adding trailers. Take a look at this link:
http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/public/CPTF/
In particular, print and look at Matrix data and Grid map. It is very telling when you look at both together which schools should be considered for closure. It should be based on the data when making a decision like this.
You should also know that in the 80’s, several schools were closed in DeKalb, ALL in central and north DeKalb. The reason was due to low enrollment. I expect many of those residents were angry also but the decision was made.
You might also want to consider that the building where the meeting was held was formerly Rehobeth Elementary School. It was one of those that was closed due to low enrollment. Should residents in those areas have played the ‘race card’ when they knew there schools were targeted for closure?
You might also want to look at Washington, DC, Kansas City, and Detroit as examples where tough decisions are being made regarding closing small schools. This is not unique to DeKalb or the residents in South DeKalb. This is happening all over the country.
OldTimer in DeKalb
March 17th, 2010
6:50 pm
And Dunwoody Mom is correct! DeKalb has over 140 schools. Perhaps 6-7 of them at most are predominately white. Children of color make up the bulk of children in DeKalb and are the majority in the remaining schools.
OldTimer in DeKalb
March 17th, 2010
6:51 pm
Did my earlier post get caught in the filter?
Dunwoody Mom
March 17th, 2010
6:55 pm
I see you are trying to turn the argument around now that I pointed out that your assertion that the schools in the North are predominately white – which they are not. Again, you cannot close a school that is under capacity if the schools close geographically cannot, due to their own capacity issues, take on extra students. Why do you refuse to see and/or acknowledge this fact?
OldTimer in DeKalb
March 17th, 2010
7:04 pm
Dunwoody Mom, I like you point of view here and on the DeKalb School Watch blog. Keep speaking your mind because you bring good perspectives to the conversation…..
Fairness Please
March 17th, 2010
7:14 pm
My assertions are correct. You are wrong, thus, your points have no basis. I addressed all your comments including the building capacity of all DeKalb county schools. Why should your kids receive preferential treatment and the advantages of a small school while other families are forced to leave their 350 student population to become part of a merged 600 plus student population?
OldTimer in DeKalb
March 17th, 2010
7:20 pm
Obviously my earlier post is still caught in the filter. Fairness Please, you may want to take a look at the recent files placed on the DeKalb School district website regarding the data. It is hard to argue when you look at it. It is in the CPTF link under Public Engagement. I’m guessing that adding the link caused my earlier post not to be posted.
Fairness Please
March 17th, 2010
7:24 pm
In addition, all the South DeKalb schools on the school closure list are not near a low enrollment school. Thus, adjustments will be made to accommodate these students. Again the point remains, why should the burden be shifted to one area of the student population? Why not close all the schools under capacity, regardless of the location? In other words, be fair in the school closure selection process.