Shocker: Grand jury indicts Dekalb ex-Superintendent Crawford Lewis on six counts

Why is Patricia Pope still with Dekalb County? Seems like she would have been placed on administrative leave without pay while the investigation took place.

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Shocker? Hardly. Anyone who has been paying attention to what has been happening in DeKalb has been expecting this for quite a while.

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I am not surprised at all. Isn’t this the same county that just tried to lock up a teacher for nothing?

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Hopefully these cases will taken care of quickly, and the taxpayers reimbursed for what was stolen from them. If the money is gone, let the three work on the roadsides clearing brush for a dollar an hour in their orange jumpsuits. No more high-test gas!

Wonder which school system’s CEO will be next?

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Pat Pope with her stuck up tail deserves to get what she got. You don’t tear people down, you are suppose to build them up.

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What’s so shocking? A grand jury of Premiere citizens found enough evidence to bring Lewis to trial. He’ll be tried by a jury of his Premiere peers, presided over by a Premiere judge. If convicted, he’ll be held over in the Premiere county jail. Just another day here in Premiere DeKalb, baby.

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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by ODE GAE NEA, Maureen Downey. Maureen Downey said: Shocker: Grand jury indicts Dekalb ex-Superintendent Crawford Lewis http://bit.ly/bBj35s [...]

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I think we are giving Crawford Lewis too much credit. I can’t see this 33 year old veteran really being involved in racketeering – takes too much forethought and planning. The real people behind this have to be Pat Pope and others that worked for Lewis at DCSS Central Office.

Lewis never gave me much confidence but it’s amazing what happens when the School Board finds a “YES” man to do what they tell him to (that’s how they keep their voters happy). I’m sure the truth will come out.

Off topic I know, but the DCSS BOE is a bunch of self-serving (words I will not use in public) that will do what the people that make the most noise (regardless of how much sense it makes – fiscal or academically) want them to. Many times it does nothing to better the quality of education. They are one of the top three reasons I have decided to leave DeKalb County for good, I don’t even want my tax dollars going to fund their foolishness!

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The shocker is that no one has called the Dekalb grand jury racists?!

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Just like with Bill Campbell and the City of Atlanta, Ricky Rowe, Friday night Poker games to funnel payoffs to the mayor to get work for the mayor’s favored Minority contractors. Something is wrong when all of a sudden you have to be black or “African American” to have a job first heading up the Construction of a major school district, then only Minority firms are given the work.

One must ask who the hell is Pat Pope or Pat Reid, where the hell did she come from to begin with. This is a very small Construction Management pool with very few qualified women at all. I will tell you that I am very familiar with who is who in this field and no one ever hear of this Pat Pope ( Reid) Character before Dekalb county. So she was nothing but a plant by the Crawford Lewis to feed contracts to the African American “Black” Contractors. But my question is how can the minority contractors now get all of the work. Why were contracts cancelled with major players.

This is 2010, we have reverse descrimination in Dekalb, Fulton and City of Atlanta. There is no need for minority set asides anymore. This is a prime example of how it is being misused. We are seeing the Black Good olde Boy/Gal system in Dekalb, just as we did in Clayton, and City of Atlanta under Campbell.

Thank God the business community brought in Michael Young to save Grady from the self dystruction. But we can watch the SCLC self dystruct in front of us.

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@ Keith, shall I say Enron, Goldman Sachs, and the entire Wall Street fiasco and their derivatives game…

Please don’t put race into this problem. Leaders are subject to corruption. If they aren’t paranoid enough to avoid jail this IS what happens. .

I work in DCSS and C.L. didn’t do anything that previous supers didn’t do…he just got caught!

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Stephan: Not yet my friend. Not yet. But you will see. Anybody who accuses a black person of anything is a racist. Look at O.J.

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UNDERSTANDING ATLANTA: .You are absolutely right. I was in the same DCSS the same 33 years as Lewis and he absolutely could not have been the BRAINS of this operation. He has neither the ability nor the drive . Don’t know who did the planning and scamming for this, but it definitely wasn’t Crawford Clueless [his nickname among colleagues]. Guess it will all come out when the “blame game” starts.

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Didn’t Crawford Clueless hire quite a large number of people during his reign…as his , let’s see, lieutenants ? Maybe some of those folks should be scrutinized.
From first to worst in a decade and a half..!!!! Well, maybe a little longer, but still, very disheartening.

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Hello filter….got me again.

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Karma ! karma ! karma ! Or was it just sloppy, inept, bungling, gauchet, incapable, incompetent, and inefficient planning and execution of the plan?

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I really don’t have an opinion on the article, but it seemed like with the personal opinions being stated by the writer, it would have been better suited for the editorial page..

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I wonder how many teachers will get the pink slip to pay for all these legal bills? How much money has been misappropriated or misspent? How about a report, Maureen, on how much the crimes and cleanup have and will cost the citizens. Keep in mind citizens will pay for the prosecution under any circumstances, and this is the type of thing that can get ugly and expensive.

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Maureen, excuse me, but I thought front page MSN local news was that: NEWS.
Save your opinion for the editorials.

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Fred, The top part of the page is Maureen’s opinion. The lighter color print is a quote from the newspaper article. Maureen gets paid to write a blog for her opinion.

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Keith, what makes you think white people aren’t corrupt? When I moved in this house I purchased from a “white” county administrator, the feds kept coming here looking for him for corruption charges. He was slick enough to steal from the county and was able to walk away without getting caught while he was in office. White people have been stealing all the time, they just know how to do it with discretion. Black people who get in such positions haven’t had enough experience, unlike their white counterparts, to steal with discretion.

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Enter your comments here

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GOOD JOB DA Flemings. Please know you are far from finished

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Not a “shocker,” Maureen. This indictment was expected. I’ve been expecting this before Spring expired. (I had been clued in by someone in the know that indictments would probably be forthcoming in the Spring.) It’s really sad. Crawford is a fairly nice guy, but he was not equipped for the job. But, some particular school board members (I won’t go into details) wanted him as the superintendent. He would do their bidding, so to speak. Dr. Jim Williams should have been named the superintendent to follow Johnny Brown. Dr. Williams was the Deputy at the time. When Crawford was nabbed as the next super, then Dr. Williams quietly and without any fanfare retired.

Dr. Williams is a man of impeccable integrity and served as Deputy under Dr. Halford and Dr. Brown (and perhaps under Dr. Freeman). The school board would be wise if they could talk Dr. Williams out of retirement to come back as a transitional leader. Tyson is too close to Crawford. Dr. Williams will actually restore some integrity to the school system. I wish Crawford well. I told a close colleague of mine that I cannot rejoice even in my political enemies’ misfortune. This is truly sad. Now I know why Crawford Lewis undoubtedly instructed that joke-of-a-school-board-attorney, Josie Alexander, to write me a laughable letter informing me that I was “banned” from DeKalb County Schools. Do I look “banned”? I think that our insisting on going forward with a grievance hearing for a teacher who was about to testify concerning systematic cheating at Clarkston High School was too much for Crawford, especially during the same time period when the young child took his own life apparently because of the unchecked bullying. Shortly after the Crawford Lewis Administration summarily and illegally shut down the grievance hearing, the cheating scandal broke out in the media, but not before MACE was publicly picketing about systematic cheating in the DeKalb County School System. (c) MACE, May 26, 2010.

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Thank you Dr. Trotter… All the people Dr. Lewis hired over the last few years need to leave Dekalb Schools NOW. Dr. Lewis hired a lot of his friends at DeKalb Schools. Run now you are next out the door.

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Oh no, another black man headed for prison.

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Keith is the typical racist; he likes to hide from facts. There are nearly 700 Black mayors in this country. I can assure you that all 700 are not failing. Poor leadership is poor leadership. We’ve had our share of white leaders that were not good. But, that says nothing about white people or whites as leaders.

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It Is unfortunate. As a former school board member elsewhere,I understand him.Probably
rides in an Escalade, begins talking on the phone as soon as he gets in it, about nothing,
that we pay for, then hides through the phone, and is absent tending to his business,But
tending to his Conn stit-u Wants. Not White.

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You are shocked Ms Downey? Crawford Lewis was low enough to steal gas!

Is the DeKalb Co government, sheriff, schools etc. EVER going to get it together?.

Time to clean house in many departments!

PATHETIC

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What’s with that filter and SallyB?

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I suspect that everyone indicted today will be given an opportunity to implicate other members of the DCSS who had a role in this. Could prove to be quite interesting.

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Irrogance never wins. Many times I experienced an arrogant spirit after dealing with this superintendent. He was not caring unless you were in his group. There are two more Dr. JW- a man, AND Dr. T. Smith a woman-she use to work at Avondale Middle, both are still there. They will miss him because he favored them dearly. God doesn’t like a proud spirit.

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First, no it is not a shocker. It is refreshing to know that the crook and his cronies have been indicted. Second, I hope that Crawford talks his head off in hopes of good favor and more of the sorry DCSS leaders get what they deserve. Hopefully, he will still get his move from the mansion to the cell. He has never been about the students, only about Crawford. Third, I hope the BOE has enough sense to decide not to continue to pay his legal expenses. Of course, they all aren’t playing with a full deck either if they thought he deserved a raise and a bigger expense account. In 2009 he received $287,991 salary and $9,452 travel expenses. See http://www.open.georgia.gov

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This is exactly what the editors wanted. A ridiculous opinion piece by an author who clearly has no knowledge of the current situation or the events that have unfolded over the past 2 years.

Nonsense articles such as these serve one purpose, to stir the pudding. If you can annoy enough people you are bound to get plenty of comments and people coming back to check responses to their comments. It’s about website “hits” and advertising revenue.

You are a joke Maureen. How does it feel to be nothing more than the editor’s puppet.

You wouldn’t even be hired by the New York Times with such poorly researched opinion pieces…and that’s saying something!

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I think Crawford is clueless. He merely signed what was shoved in front of him, but that doesn’t rid him of any blame. Now he should have to sleep in the bed that he helped make. He was simply not qualified to take over for the last crook that held the superintendent’s position in DeKalb. Pat Pope saw a way to keep the contracts in her own pocket by helping to award them to her then husband’s firm and she was arrogant enough to think she could get away with it. I know Crawford and I have always thought him to be an honest man. I think he was just a bit too trusting. I hope I’m not wrong about him and I hope the truth will come out.

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I agree with “This Is A Fact” in that Ronald Ramsey should most definitely be the next to go! He’s been a crook with no ethics since his days of running his daycare center, Children for Christ. Puhlease!!!!!!

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Maureen, I did not see a copy of the indictment posted on the AJC blog, but being a criminal defense lawyer would be interested in reading it. Based on the search warrant, I expected that the DA was chasing down possible illegal gratuities, i.e. gifts from contractors and other vendors in return for favorable treatment. While this is common, Lewis should have known this was illegal. This is why the DeKalb County Schools and all other school systems need a strong ethics code for both employees and BOE members.

The misuse of the purchasing card was already known (i.e. Gas Gate) and so was the below market price for the car. I presume the DA threw this in for an easy conviction on some minor counts. Standing alone, I doubt the DA would have ever charged them.

I am a bit surprised by the racketeering counts as these require more complex proof of a pattern of illegal conduct.

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Someone should look into the contracts for closed circuit television contracts, security systems, etc…same equipment installed multiple times??? Different companies selling the equipment, but the same people own both companies. Lots of stuff going on here!!

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I am appalled, and somehow I think there would be merit in the DAs expanding this out to more of the Lewis cronies. So – how to get the DAs office to continue?
It’s bad enough having to pay taxes, but to have the tax money taken for personal gain is worse. Throw the book at them!

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Doesn’t that story he concocted about siphoning the gas, etc. scream that he is not the sharpest knife in the drawer? I actually liked him as a colleague and hope he was just ignorant.

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Trotter giving advice about a superintendent??!!! Thanks- I needed the laugh!!! considering your history of support for BOE members that screwed up Clayton county and caused the best teachers to flee the system, it gets even funnier. Stop!!! My sides are hurting!!!!

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fulton and dekalk county gov’t and school systems are filled with a bunch of crooks, on the take from every lobbyist in town. They’ve stolen so much money over the years, there’s little left for anything needed. The town is a disgrace.

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127 page indictment here:

http://www.11alive.com/news/pdf/Indictment%20_10CR2861.pdf

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I question Ron Ramsey’s acquiescence to Crawford’s telling him to forward all subpoenas from DA to Pat Reid/Pope. She was the target of the investigation, for Pete’s sake – if Ron thinks it’s OK to send them to her, does he belong in the legislature representing ANYBODY?

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@ Cobb mom, I used to work for one of the largest GC’s in the SE and if you all major contracts are going to minority firms you are sadly mistaken. I’ve seen mulit-million dollar contracts that are supposed to be for MBE ’s go to firms owned & managed by white men that use their wives as cover— so the door swings both way when it comes to these contracts. The sad part is contracting as a whole is all about who you know and how often you golf with the project managers that are asking for bids

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Dr. JW and his many conquests(women), may have to find somewhere else to have their liasons.

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I am looking at seven furlough days in the coming year (which equals an almost 4% pay cut), more students in my classroom (already overcrowded), and an increased workload. IF they are proven guilty, I’m hoping all four enjoy their multitude of furlough days that will be coming their way. I also hope all of them “sing” about all the others involved so that we can clean up this crap heap of a central office.

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Barb,

Where did you see the powerpoint? The actual indictment is available on atlanta unfiltered and the 11Alive websites.

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I read the indictment. All parties need to lawyer up ASAP. This is going to get crazy.

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This stuff’s been going in dekalb for years. This lowlife has been stealing the county school system blind, but due to the race card, no one ever does anything.

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A copy of the indictment can be found here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/32029252/Crawford-Lewis-DeKalb-RICO-Indictment

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I wonder if @Keith and cobb Mother – really believe what they are saying or if they are what I call WEB Pimps! Selling something to get you off the subject.

Can we all say BP!! Louisiana coastlines….oil spills – White CEO……..read Common Sense blog people.

Wonder what will happen to CLewis bowtie people, family friends and a*** kissers? Why does Senator Ronald Ramsey name continue to be mention (head of internal affairs of DCSS)?

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I hope that all DeKalb taxpayers, parents, and teachers (and you Maureen) attend this press conference tomorrow and raise their voice.

The following came from DeKalb County School System:
________________________________________________________________________________
MEDIA ADVISORY
WHO: DeKalb County Board of Education
What: PRESS CONFERENCE
When: Thursday, May 27, 2010 @ 10A.M.
Where: Robert R. Freeman Administrative Center, Building A
J. David Williamson Board Room
3770 North Decatur Road
Decatur, GA 30032

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So When are they going to indict Turner Construction, who also got caught using illegals on the Marietta Courthouse and the Jacksonville Courthouse. The indictment speaks for the corupt culture of Turner Construction, since they were the one of the Primary suppliers of Tickets. What about her buddy that she gave the Heery contract too. When are charges going to be filed against them, Moody, Merit and Nix Mann.

Poor Dekalb Tax Payers are going to have to pay big bucks for the work that was stolen by the bid rigging and illegal firings from Heery, Brown Architects, and Winter Construction. I am sure these three firms and several others will be seeking the lost profits that were stolen from them.

When is Turner going to be put on the do not bid list, they are as bad as Halburtin.

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Did anybody notice that the only person smiling on their mugshot is Pat Reid/Pope?

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I am so SICK & TIRED of seeing Black folks getting caught up in these crimes…allegedly. [cough] Whites have done stuff like this for years, but they mostly have the good ol’boy system to hide their mess, at least for a while. Some do get busted–Skandalakis, Swindall, others. Even Gov. Perdue seems to be corrupt, IMO. But after all the struggle to actualize rights and equal access in this country, I expect more of my people. I HATE what Atlanta has become–politically and celeb-crazy socially–and would actually love to see the White folks take over for a while; let’s see some of their mess again. Stand up and walk straight, people.

But, perhaps it’s just politics or human nature in this modern world, because it seems that too many people are misbehaving and acting immorally. We need decency laws and harsher punishments for crimes. And we value underachievers and minimize people of true value who actually do good. I don’t recognize this city or this country. Stop the world, I want to get off…or at least just become a beachcomber.

Wish I wasn’t such a news junkie; too much mess.

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Is Ms. Moody related to the construction contractor CD Moody?

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These indictments have nothing to do with Crawford Lewis being a black man. I am ashamed to see comments indicating such. Black or white, we are called to be honest when we are given power. Was he honest? I don’t know. What I do know is that he was not always fair to the people serving under him.
Scribbler, a former DeKalb County teacher

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Where is the racial diversity?

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@teachertoo – I am so sorry they do this to you. I remember years ago when they moved assistant principals around and when the parents complained – we were basically told to stop complaining or they would make more changes.

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and not enough sleep can lead to poor spelling (collapsing)

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Pat Swindle was here…….

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This blog is funny to me. Corruption has plagued society since its inception. Doesn’t make it right.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

It doesn’t matter what you classify yourself as, absolute powere corrupts. Halford thought he could drive drunk, Brown that he could run away from money he stole in TX, Lewis that the people he trusted were credible. Everyone has their issues, no one is going to be perfect. As taxpayers we need people who work for the better of the students, in spite of their personal shortcomings.

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WHEN CRAWFORD TOLD THAT “CRACKHEAD” STORY ABOUT SOME RANDOM STRANGER SIPHONING THE GAS OUT OF HIS CAR I KNEW HE WAS GOING DOWN. AND, AS FOR PAT POPE, SHE HAS MANNY AS HER LAWYER. EVERY HIGH PROFILE CLIENT HE HAS EVER HAD HAS GONE TO JAIL! SEE YA PAT…..

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Personally, I’m beginning to question how much the school board knew of this mess. I mean, they see the financial reports. They see the monthly status reports which SHOULD show major vendors, cash flows, expenditures, etc. They SHOULD have seen the early report from the auditors that identified the bidding discrepancies.

Either they are asleep at the wheel (negligent) or complaisant.

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Where is SACs? If this happened in Clayton County SACs would have been all over this a long time ago.

Also, go to open.ga.gov and look at some of these salaries, there are many people getting paid ridiculous amounts of money that does not line up with their years of experience and degree level. Yet teachers are steady being furloughed and denied step increases due to “budget cuts”. The budget is being cut from the hardworking to provide inflated salaries to the “who you know” crowd.

I am so over education, where are the auditors?

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I grew up in DeKalb County in the late 60s/early 70s. It was literally squeaky clean. Now, we have the most outrageous crimes committed in seemingly every aspect of public life – Jeezus H the Sheriff was a common murderer! Now this – what is WRONG with these people? What the hell happened to this once proud and progressive county?? When did Americans lose all ability to control themselves and run even the simplest aspects of their government? If it’s not right wing lunatics or left wing froo-froos, it’s a common crook RUNNING THE ENTIRE SCHOOL SYSTEM. It’s just depressing beyond words.

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I am outraged that the press conference the BOE is holding this morning is NOT on PDS-24. This would have been a great way to be transparent to the teachers, administrators, parents and taxpayers while they explain what is going on. DCSS is in shambles and until the current leadership resigns nothing will change.

Philandrea Guilroy, Francis Edwards daughter, makes over 115K a year to run this cable access channel.. There are production managers at 2, 5, 11, and 46 who make a lot less and do three times the amount of work. Ms. Guilroy please resign, your two minutes of fame are over! By the way, while you’re at it have your husband resign as well as your brother and other cousins who work in DCSS.

Ms. Tyson want to regain our respect and trust? Time for wholesale resignations from everyone in the upper management including yours.

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I found the powerpoint on the Daily Report: http://www.atlawblog.com/2010/05/dekalb-da-school-chief-involved-in-racketeering/#more-287

We Dekalb residents better get serious about our governance.

Right now we have a Deputy Police chief quitting under bribery charges; our Fire Chief has just resigned as a result of a bungled call. We have a past Police chief saying he was kidnapped by government leaders & a CEO using additional police protection. And – Nowhere did our elected school board leaders provide the kind of checks,balances and oversight a 300 billion dollar pot of SPLOST money demands.

And I haven’t even started on the finances of both the county government & the school system. The declining tax base or the low level of scholastic achievement in the school system.

I think we should all be acutely aware that many individuals with the school system and construction trade had to know about this on-going criminal activity. The culture of corruption is pervasive. Someone signed the checks; covered Tony Pope’s work profile and worked along side these people.

DCSS will be a long time recovering from this legacy and without an outside administrator coming in and aggressively cleaning house nothing will change.

Big Question—- Does our elected School Board really want a clean house or do they want business as usual???

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“as a teacher in Dekalb for 32 years who worked overtime every single day and at home at night… I never once received overtime pay.”

Very strict overtime rules were instituted in late fall, 2007. All DCSS employees outside the schoolhouse were told we had to declare the 8 hours we would work – i.e. we could decide to work from 7:30 to 4:30 or 8:00 to 5:00 or 8:00 to 5:30, etc. We were required to sign in and out and had to take an hour for lunch. We were strictly forbidden to work any overtime. We were told any time we needed to work over the 8 hours, pre-approval must be sought, and if approved, and we would be paid time and a half (that happened a few times). We were told this was a response to a lawsuit by the bookkeepers in DCSS who were suing because they had been forced to work overtime without pay.

Dr. Lewis exempted all members of the schoolhouse – teachers and the administrators from overtime (they already signed in and out to make sure they worked 8 hours so that continued). Perhaps it was reasoned that teachers were certified, contract employee so they could work overtime without pay. (e.g. teachers may need to stay overtime for faculty meetings, staff development, parent meetings, etc.). Not being one of the “upper management” personnel, I don’t know how they rationalized it. I tried to find out.

I pointed out that everyone in my department were certified contract employees even though we were outside the schoolhouse, and we were told not to work any overtime unless we got time and a half. I said I didn’t think it was fair for teachers inside the schoolhouse to have to work overtime without being compensated yet we were being compensated and we were certified contract employees. I asked what was the difference? I was told Dr. Lewis had made the decision that the overtime decision would not apply to teachers and administrators in the schoolhouse, but would apply to everyone else. There was no room for discussion.

I was always surprised teachers didn’t get upset that certified contract employees outside the schoolhouse were getting overtime while they weren’t.

I’m retired now so I don’t know what the status of the overtime rules are.

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I will agree, it’s not about Race, it’s just our typical politicians being greedy and dumb. Money makes people do dumb things. My only question is, how in the world does a secretary make $43000 in overtime. Didn’t anybody in payroll catch this? Send them all to prison, because the end result is they stole from the children!!!!!!

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How did the secretary make $43,000.00 overtime. Crawford Lewis issued a policy that no hourly employee could work overtime, we had to work 8 hours.

Where was payroll when she submitted her time? Where was Marcus Turk when he gave his financial reports? with this and the rather large checks made out to Tony Pope and others?
Did he not see a red flag? What about the people who was fired for not following board policies and now did Crawford Lewis, Pat Pope or c. Moody following board policies they are still on staff?

By the way Mr. Bowen is a cpa, why did he not catch this? Do the BOE get copies of the financial reports? How many of the board of education friends with Jay Cunningham, Sarah Copeland Wood, Z Roberts????

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Murders, School Board crooks….what a Third World County.

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@SallyB
Thanks for that overtime info. Not a surprise.

I left DCSS in 2005 after being there in several different positions for 32 years. Both of my children attended Dekalb schools when it was an excellent system and both received superior instruction…so much so that both remarked that their freshman college courses were less rigorous than some of their high school courses.

I watched the DCSS decline from my classroom. Thanks to that N. Decatur Road crowd, my last year was truly a fiasco, so much so that, even though I loved teaching and thought I would never leave, I had to go.

I still see and talk to many of my former colleagues and it’s just so sad to see such a dedicated group of teachers so thoroughly disheartened and counting the days until they can leave.

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Corruption in Dekalb County actually surprised you? C’mon. Can anyone offer any reasonable explanation as to why so many embarrassing (to Dekalb residents) situations/events continue to occur year after year in this county? Fmr sheriff puts hit on the person who defeated him, police chief fired for incompetence, fire chief fired for incompetence, rampant corruption and apparently just the tip of the iceberg with those appointed by the BOE, a fmr CEO who literally thought while employed by the county (and still thinks today) he is some type of monarch – accused of various sexual exploits and likely the worst nepotist of all yet somehow has managed to stay out of jail, appointees of fired police chiefs now under Federal indictment for bribery, the list goes on and on and on. And this is just what we know about — what was actually caught by the DA. Hopefully those surprised by this most recent garbage aren’t naive enough to think the scandals that have been exposed are the only ones going on. Criminy, isn’t the current CEO under 24 hr police protection because he stood up to the incompetant cronies who are supposedly in charge?? It’s sad. It’s embarrassing. But this story won’t be the last. It won’t be long before another awful scandal is brought to light that will make the taxpayers of this county just shake their head, not in disbelief that another scandal happened, but in disbelief that a govt. in the 21st century in the largest city in the state of Georgia and the 10th largest metro area in the country can be operated by such utter morons.

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I have not had a chance to contact the Dekalb board members yet today but I will be actively campaigning AGAINST any who resists the suggestion that cleaning house isn’t a priority or doesn’t follow through on it.

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board members. If you were able to justify decisions with facts, studies, and projections why would you object to someone looking at your record.

I say there is a need to vet candidates for the local school board and allow citizens to see what the community thinks. The one’s the cry the loudest are the ones that know they’d be out the door. But if the current trend continues, the one’s that need to leave will be pushed out by more qualified (yes as a voter I decide who’s qualified) individuals. Maybe board members bring a wealth of knowledge that gets tainted mainly by the zealots who scream “If anything happens in S. DeKalb you don’t care about the black children” disregarding the obvious and wanting to hide the 800 lb gorilla

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I wonder if any of these people got these jobs because they were African-American?

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Dekalb voter, do all white people get their jobs because they are white? These people have credentials and obviously were qualified for the positions. Just because they assumed they could commit the crimes that you people call “white collar”, and get away with it, does not mean they were hired because of their skin color.

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It is apparent that Crawford Lewis was engaged in egregious and illegal conduct based on the plethora of charges listed in the criminal indictment. Crawford Lewis, Pat Pope, Tony Pope and Conita Moody were the master minds behind this mafia scheme to defraud taxpayers. There are other individuals that are involved who have not been detected. I think it is important to understand that no legal decision is made in the Dekalb County School District without the knowledge and authorization of Ronald Ramsey. Ronald Ramsey’s office determines what documents are disclosed to other legal entities. All legal documents such as subpoenas, open records requests, etc. are reviewed by his department. Ronald Ramsey should be investigated for obstruction. In Summary, Crawford Lewis should spend the rest of his life in prison. He has committed so many unethical acts during his tenure as a Dekalb County employee he deserves everything he gets! He has singlehandedly attempted to destroy many careers because he had the power to do so. It is funny when the grim reaper finally knocks on his door for retribution. Crawford Lewis has openly cheated on his wife, he has hired incompetent principals, incompentent Assistant Supertendents (Little man Ralph Simpson) and he has spent $15 million defending a lawsuit against Henry Mitchell Construction. What a PREMIER legacy. The corruption in the Dekalb County School District also extends to board members who illegally use their positions to illegally profit from their relationship with the School District. Jay Cunningham is being investigated for providing food services to several of the high schools at a premium rate. Tom Bowens is aware of this and Crawford Lewis is aware of this illegal relationship but no one has said a word. The corruption in the Dekalb County School District will continue until the School District hires a Superintendent with integrity and ethics.

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Money is not worth losing your freedom and everything you have worked for. People are so greedy and stupid.

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Well said MOBFIGURE – how is it that most parents and teachers in the county were well aware of this nonsense YEARS ago? Crawford Lewis brought in horrible people and Lakeside was almost destroyed because of his stupid decisions. We are one step away of becoming a Clayton County.

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@mobfigure I almost threw up in my mouth when you said CLew cheated on his wife! Wow! I wonder who would sleep with him. He is not handsome or articulate by any means. I like a man with power and money but he has to be fine like Blair Underwood or Barack

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TO WOW:

Crawford Lewis had unfettered access to women because of his status. Many women slept with him in order to post it on their facebook page that they were having a forbidden relationship with a married man.

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As I see it, any Board of Ed member who argued against the $$ limits on gifts and meals in the Board Ethics policy – you know who you are – is right down there ethically with these four. There is no difference morally between accepting Masters’ tickets and accepting a $100 meal from a vendor. There is no difference morally between fixing a contract so your husband and you are paid $400,000 and refusing to speak at a community gathering unless they feed you and pay you.

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What a shocker !! not only are the people who run dekalb ,and fulton and clayton county all unqualified for these jobs , they are all stupid crooks

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@brenda…
TIP OF THE ICEBERG ???? not to belabor the point, but those county office people are going to be tripping all over each other to get to the D.A. with whatever info they have to try to save their own a——-s.

That N.Decatur Rd. bunch of cretins have steamrollered the entire system….one which was so proud and so reputable in years past. Not that there weren’t always issues with them…even in the Hallford, Cherry, Freeman days, but never such total incompetents as populate that county office now. G-d help us all.

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So Pope and Reid think their bail is too high? Think of all the money they have made off the school system (assuming it was legal) and they think it is too high? Puhhlessze.

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Okay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can I now just get my correct salary back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This pay cut is hurting me in a big way. We that were in year-around schools had to take either A/B meaning our salaries would be cut throughout the school year or take half pay during the summer. Therefore, my pay has been cut the entire school year and now will be cut even more in the up coming school year.

I am sure that my raise and pay cut was rapped up in all of those millions that Crawfrod and Pat were using for their own gain and profit.

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Don’t kid yourself. Dekalb School Board Members are well aware and has always had full knowledge of Lewis’ actions because they pulled his strings. They are the puppeters… Now their plan is too distance themselves as far as possible from Lewis. I’d say Bowen is a great actor and an even better liar.

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Hey Mark Elgart, I guess that the DeKalb County School System and the Atlanta Public Schools are getting along most swimmingly. They are upholding SACS’s sterling and hypocritical standards, eh? Mark, you and your money-grabbing SACS are phonies. Wait! Call Ericka Davis! You may want you to sic somebody whom she detests or is afraid of. You think? What say ye?

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As DCSS educators we have been threatened with our jobs if we speak out about this. I say it’s time to STAND UP, not sit down and take it. We are not the ones allegedly committing fraud, etc. We show up each morning to get our rooms ready, greet each child, use a variety of teaching methods to teach to each individual learning style, gobble our lunch in 15 minutes, clean up our room at the end of the day, then take papers and projects home to grade each night until almost midnight. There are no nights at the Ritz-Carlton, trips to the Bahamas, or “bonuses” for running errands. It’s time we stopped taking this and made it known we are no longer willing to carry this load on our shoulders. I am sick and tired of being threatened. Pat Pope is still drawing a salary!!! Threaten her!!!

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@Maureen

Maureen do you have another e-address or could you e-mail me at apw_2539@yahoo.com
I have a question for you. Please do me that favor. Thanks, Angela

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Okay Angela… Where do I send my pertinent info?

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[...] Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) [...]

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According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, one of the most effective fraud fighting tools is a 1-800-hotline. It’s got to go to an independent third party to protect anonymity and you must follow-up on EVERY call. I don’t know of any school systems who do this, but they regularly spend tens of million$ for a small system and over a BILLION for a large system.

Pay me know or pay a whole lot more later, to paraphrase the old adage.

Back when the news of Pope’s car deal was publicized, there were many of us on this blog who said it was the tip of the iceberg. Back when Lewis’ car deal and “gas-gate” was publicized, there were many of us on this blog who said it was the tip of the iceberg.

But hey, it’s only taxpayer money. Riggghhhhtttt???

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Teachers and School Administrators are suppose to set a “Good Example” for our students. For years we have heard that “parents must play a greater role” in the education of their children. I spend “every” night helping with homework. I beleive (as do many proponents of “home schooling) that currently over 50% of teaching is being done by parents anyways! SET THE EXAMPLE: right, the news is full of “great examples”. Everyone makes mistakes? Tell that to the kangaroo court “School Tribunals” that are criminalizing minor disiplinary violations. Kids are losing their “constitutional right” to an education and starting adult life with “criminal records” for minor offenses. School Resourse Officers (SROs) and BOE Police are criminalizing our children, not protecting them. What are Principals afraid of? Take the Police out and put some “Bar Bouncers” in if we really are only concerned with teacher and student safety. It’s no wonder so many young people start college and adult life with “attitude” problems! Stop the STTP (school to prison pipline)!
School adminstrators concetrate on the bad apple teachers! Is the system “setting a good example” for the students? Read the papers! At least a teacher or adminstrator, when arrested, has the right to “Due Process of Law” as required by the 14th Amendement! Our children are not afforded the same when “arrested” for a violation of the “SCHOOL CODE OF CONDUCT”! Talk about double standards. Had I had it to do over, all my children would have been home schooled!!

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Good people if you don’t have all of the facts please stop offering comments that aren’t backed up with facts.

Cobb Mother, there wasn’t anything remotely related to set asides for these projects. Of the seven or eight projects being investigated the breakdown with respect to race was as follows:
Contractors – one minority general contractor; the other projects were constructed or are currently under construction by majority owned general contractors.
Architects – two minority architects; the other projects were all designed by majority owned architects. Tony Pope is included in this analysis as he was the prime architect for Columbia High School (one of the projects being investigated) prior to his former wife becoming the director of construction for DCSS.

The only color in this equation that should really be considered is U.S. Mint green.

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there is someone running against Ramsey – votedianawilliams.com

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I am a former graduate student of Dr. Lewis. I am utterly and totally surprised by this. I remember when he was appointed to the position. He put everything on stop and expressed his gratitude for being selected as Superintendent. He was happy and elated. I can not believe that this happiness was a front for some type of master plan. He did not have this trouble until he became Super. I believe there are others who are the real culprits and he just happened to be in the wrong place and was taken by the scoundrels responsible.

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Yes, Mr. Lewis is completely innocent. He was most definitely in the wrong place.

His car drove him to the Chevron gas station three times on the same day by mistake. This car should be recalled.

Bad car! Shame on you! No wonder our American car makers are in trouble. Bad car! Bad Chevron gas station, too.

Let’s don’t place blame on Crawford Lewis. He was just taken for a ride to the Chevron gas station by mistake. Poor guy!

And the taxpayers were taken for a ride to the cleaners.

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Could someone please explain the shock part to this story. If Santa was indicted for beating up on the Mrs, shock would be the operative word…if the Easter Bunny was indicted for stealing all the chocolate eggs on Easter Eve, shock would reverberate throughout the land…but comon, this story is anything but a shock to the taxpayers.

Perhaps AJC should require refresher courses in accurate and appropriate choices of descriptives.

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Dear Dekalb voter, No they did not get their jobs because they were African American. I do agree that “racism” is the root cause of this malady. Racist power brokers love to promote incompetent “African Americans” that they can manipulate for their own purposes. And do not dare suggest that the administrations of Hallford and Freeman were not corrupt. As a matter of fact C.L. was groomed under Hallford.

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“And do not dare suggest that the administrations of Hallford and Freeman were not corrupt. As a matter of fact C.L. was groomed under Hallford.”

You’re got some excellent points.

Hallford established 16 area superintendents each with their own very highly paid content coordinators and Assistant Principal coordinator, secretary, etc. Each area superintendent was supposed to be accountable for his/her own area. The trouble was they kept switching schools in and out of areas and then he started switching area superintendents out of areas (into new made up positions) and appointing new area superintendents, etc. No one was ever in the position long enough to be accountable (sound familiar?).

The Central Office zoomed overnight. Teachers were so excited to get these lucrative jobs. The pay was more than they ever thought they would make in education. Some did complain that all they ever did was meet, meet and meet some more – but the money was great.

Within a few years of musical chairs, this reporting system was discontinued due to a budget crunch. I seem to remember they let 200 parapros go and I mentally calculated that the budget for these by now reduced in number teams far outweighed the salaries of the 200 parapros (sound familiar?).

The members of the “teams” were so worried – they might be sent back to teach with a teacher’s salary. One I knew took an Assistant Principal position in anticipation that she needed to grab something that was available while the gettin’ was good. She need not have worried. By then alliances had been formed, and power centers had been established. The Central Office was reorganized and all of the coordinator and administrative support personnel were saved. They were quietly absorbed back into the money pit the Central Office had become.

This huge increase in non-teaching personnel became apparent during the recession of the early 200’s (2002-03) much like this Great Recession has laid bare our current overstaffing and overpayment of non-teaching jobs.

This is what Johnny Brown tried to address in the form of an independent audit by Ernst and Young which concluded that over 2,500 non-teaching personnel were being overpaid by $14,800,000 a year and was presented to the BOE spring, 2004. Since Freeman and and Hallford were the ones who had increased these non-teaching personnel, we can lay that squarely at their doorstep.

Johnny Brown was moved out within a few months of the audit presentation to the BOE, and Lewis came in. Lewis disputed the independent audit’s conclusions saying only $1,800,000 in annual overpayments were being eaten by the taxpayers. He didn’t think it was fair to do any adjustments so the audit and thus Dr. Brown’s efforts were for naught.

Most of this audit information is in BOE minutes on the DCSS BOE website except the original meeting where Dr. Brown has the Ernst and Young consultant presenting their conclusion about the $14,000,000 in overpayments to non-teaching personnel. That meeting and the supporting documents (the actual audit) is nowhere to be found on the BOE site. Jen Sansbury, an AJC reporter, reported on this meeting so you can find it in the AJC archives. I could only find her article she wrote the next day April 2, 2004 about this meeting.

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teachparent be careful when you say central office, because now central office covers the service center, bus services,truck services and transportation which were never part of central office we became part of central office when Crawford needed people to lay off.

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