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APS cheating mess: Hall won’t stay on after contract ends

10:40 am November 20, 2010, by Maureen Downey

As I have reported here before, APS Superintendent Beverly Hall was not expected to stay on after next spring when her contract expired.

I have argued with many folks here on the blog that she should be allowed to stay on through the expiration of her contract in the spring simply for the sake of stability.  Most of you disagreed, including now my own newspaper. But I have found that interim superintendents throw systems into inertia. Nothing gets done for the year while the search is under way for a new leader.

You all argued that dormancy is better than chaos.

Now, we have confirmation that Hall formally plans to step down next year. She has given official word to what has been the long-held unofficial assumption:

Channel 2 Action News is reporting that Hall notified school board members late Friday that she will not seek another contract when her current contract expires on June 30, of next year.

– By Maureen Downey, AJC Get Schooled blog

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November 20th, 2010
11:35 am

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by AJC and Marsha Francis, Maureen Downey. Maureen Downey said: APS cheating mess: Hall won’t stay on after contract ends http://bit.ly/bfhIJI [...]

catlady

November 20th, 2010
1:53 pm

Even inertia is better than continuing to go backwards.

I have the Scoop

November 20th, 2010
2:22 pm

Dr. Marcia Llyles former Deputy Chancellor of New York City Public Schools and Now Superintendent in Delaware has been seen meeting with School Board Members in Atlanta. A good choice. Stan Mims a former Superintendent, also from New York City Public Schools is a strong candidate. Arlene Ackaman would be the best choice but wont leave Philadelphia anytime soon, then there is Linda Darling Hammond a professor at Stanford University. In house there is Randy Bynum who is well liked by principals because he is not dogmatic like many of the Executive leadership team. There are many principals to consider but the board is too stupid to consider them. There is Tyrone Smith at Mays, Vincent Murray at Grady, Shirlene Carter at Southside, Melody Morgan at Corretta Scott King and a few other Principals who has the skills and work ethic to do the work. There is a few Middle School Principals that have the skills, Andre Williams at Coan Middle School, Dr. Battle at King Middle School and even Betsy Bockman at inman is said to no the work. No one on the Executive team exept Mr. Bynum has the personality or skills to do the job.

Suavez

November 20th, 2010
2:53 pm

As long as the next super is white I’ll be happy.

Cousin Booger

November 20th, 2010
3:08 pm

Horrors! None of these principals! Tyronne Smith? Are you kidding us?!

Dr. John Trotter

November 20th, 2010
3:09 pm

Maureen: She is a lameduck, and she needs to get out of town immediately!

Are you serious

November 20th, 2010
5:05 pm

Tyrone Williams and the Federal Department of Labor are familiar with one another (as he tried to treat teachers as both exempt and nonexempt employees simultaneously). Andre Williams is no longer at Coan. He supposedly went to Oklahoma to be a superintendent. He then reappeared in Atlanta to become interim Principal and then Principal at Crim six months later. Test scores at Coan declined in the year the state monitored his testing. Dr. Battle has led King to lower academic performance since her arrival(they did not make AYP last year after making it the previous 5 years and had a decline the first year she was there as well) and is the subject of current litigation against the district. Dr. Trotter should be familiar with her from MACE. It is not a well kept secret that the school is out of control, ask the students and staff. Her current staff does not think she is competent; she has hired her cronies who are not even certified in the areas they lead. Melody Morgan was hand selected by Dr. Hall so she isn’t a contender. Southside (now Maynard Jackson) is out of control with the poorly behaved students that leave Coan and King Middle School. Bockman works well for Inman but Inman issues are not representative of APS issues overall; no one wants a former PE teacher leading any type of district wide reform. The Executive leadership ranks of the School Reform Teams will be the source of any internal candidates not the high school or middle school levels.

Here's a thought...

November 20th, 2010
9:28 pm

I would like to point out that you can’t throw anything into inertia. Inertia is an object’s resistance to a change in motion. Sorry, but as a science teacher I would like to clear that up. Perhaps a different metaphor would suit. I’m not being mean-spirited… the correction is meant kindly :)

exaps teacher

November 20th, 2010
10:26 pm

brave AJC reporters. Job well done.
Maureen , you could learn a bit from your fellow workers instead of your blind support for Beverly Hall.

Community Fed Up

November 20th, 2010
10:30 pm

I am glad Dr. Hall is leaving. She needs to take Augustine, Pitts Bynum and all of her Senior Cabiney members with her. We dont need anymore northerners to run our system. Also, the person Suavez who said as long as they are white…well white does not mean right.

Maureen Downey

November 20th, 2010
10:45 pm

@exaps, I have never had blind support for Dr. Hall. (Please read back over my editorials on the e-rate mess and some other problems that the system had.)
But I never doubted two things about Beverly Hall; She believed that poor kids could learn and she believed that good teachers were the key.
Do I think that she has handled the CRCT mess well? No.
Maureen

Ros Dalton

November 21st, 2010
1:43 am

So we just had a thread castigating a ghost writer who helped kids cheat on an individual basis which included some extremely vivid and graphic language. Now we have an administrator, someone with true power, and someone who is definitely going to make a lot more over this last year of her contract than the writer above, who has cheated thousands of kids of their just educational experience and who struggled mightily to cover it up and she’s supposed to get a pass and keep drawing her pay check?

I’ve got no stake in APS except the taint of association, but I say no. I’m sorry, actually I say NO! When you catch a politician, and Dr. Hall is first and foremost a politician, doing their filthy business you must show no weakness, no tolerance. Throw the lot of them out as fast as possible. Do you really imagine they won’t wreak more harm over the course of her remaining term? They’ll grift, grind, grab, and do anything else to steal their chunk from the system and lie and cheat as much as necessary to cover it up along the way in the name of that next job.

I say make an example out of them. Make the next scumbag to try this garbage hesitate at least for a moment remembering what happened to Hall and her gang. Education matters. Kids matter. This is an important issue, and it does not deserve to be swept away merely because it’s inconvenient to take the trash out in the middle of the school year.

Michael

November 21st, 2010
5:17 am

At $331K per year, I’m sure hundreds of pedigreed doofuses will line up with padded resumes. And they will pick the chief doofus. No, that would be Clayton county.

exaps teacher

November 21st, 2010
12:57 pm

Maureen,
There are hundreds of people who believe that “poor children can learn” and “good teachers are the key”. Do all them get the benefit of a fat salary that Hall did for 11 years?
Saying you believe in something is one thing..actually doing tangible things to prove that is another. Beverly Hall always had her interest and her paycheck and her persona ahead of students at APS. No matter which way you see it, you cant run away from it.

Patrick Crabtree

November 21st, 2010
11:33 pm

Will Hall pay back the money she received on the “gains” in her targets when they were lies? Maureen, tell me one educator who doesn’t believe what you believe. BUT, when we are required to teach the way Dr. Hall required and threatened job loss if we didn’t and the students did not progress as fast as she thought they should, whose fault is it? Maybe the system or the program is at fault. Dr. Hall blamed it on ‘bad’ teachers. I have seen excellent teachers lose their jobs for speaking out and questioning the cheating. I further question the money especially e-rate and connections with big donators like Gates and G.E. What are the Feds investigating? We are about to find out the real corruptions she has hid besides cheating. Just wait, after all this is over, there will be lawsuits that we can’t fathom. That said, we deserve it, we bought into the lie without question because it “sounded good.” I have never been the enemy, I care about my community. I chose to live in SW Atlanta. We deserve better and the community needs to be better educated. Speak up and speak out.

Doris M

November 22nd, 2010
12:07 pm

If the investigation finally shows there was cheating, should not Beverly Hall have to return her salary bonuses?

Community Fed Up

November 22nd, 2010
8:16 pm

I have always said that if the school system cheated then Dr. Hall really should return awards. She has lied and has kept the lie going for years. She and her entire senior staff need to leave.