DeKalb: Protecting teachers by outsourcing other jobs?
Facing an estimated $50 million shortfall in next year’s budget, DeKalb schools may resort to outsourcing custodial and maintenance work now done by 700 employees. The district is exploring whether outsourcing the work will be cheaper than paying its own personnel.
While I understand the pain caused by any job losses, it seems that DeKalb is looking at a better solution than laying off teachers. If some of these non classroom jobs can be performed more cheaply by outside contractors, it would save the taxpayers money.
With the size of the shortfalls that DeKalb and other counties are confronting, jobs are going to have to be eliminated.
Shouldn’t those jobs be outside the classroom?
The school system is considering privatizing custodians and maintenance jobs, including grounds-keeping, painting, window glazing, heating and air-conditioning, equipment repair and pest control.
“The objective is not to eliminate employees, but to save taxpayer dollars,” DeKalb schools spokesman Jeff Dickerson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday.
School officials said the outsourcing is still a proposal and the amount of potential savings was not available this week.
However, the proposal could mean layoffs. Dickerson said about 700 jobs would be impacted. Board chairman Tom Bowen said the proposal impacts 900 jobs – 600 custodians and 350 at the school service center.
Dickerson said the district “strongly encourages vendors to give preference to existing employees,” and it is too early to determine who would retain employment.
That’s not enough for the Organization of DeKalb Educators, which represents about 4,700 school employees.
“It’s a huge concern for us,” said David Schutten, the union’s president. “People in the schools are very upset that privatizing custodians will take away the family feel in schools.”
Outsourcing is one of several suggestions that came up earlier this year as part of budget cuts. Facing an estimated $50 million shortfall in next year’s budget, the proposal is back on the table.
Last week, the school system received several bids in response to Requests For Proposals advertised for custodians and maintenance positions. School staff are now reviewing those bids to determine if the move is cost-effective and will make a recommendation to the board over the next two months.
“This is purely an investigation of a possible cost-savings measure. If it turns out that it does not materially benefit the district, it won’t be pursued,” Bowen told the AJC. “It is a good idea to understand what other school districts across the country have done to cut costs in the area of support services.”
Schutten said he too needs more information. He plans to ask questions about employee pay, benefits, seniority and job security at Monday’s school board meeting. Other school employees have suggested a protest.
“Over the long haul, privatization will hurt us far too much,” Schutten said. “They think privatization will save money, but that’s not necessarily true.”
–Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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148 comments Add your comment
catlady
January 1st, 2011
9:25 am
How many parents use these parent centers? We have one in each school but the librarian runs it, at no extra pay. I don’t think a single parent has gone in, despite signs all over and other publicity for it. That is an easy savings.
My experience with custodians: excellent. We used to have a few elderly folks who wanted to ride the job to retirement but they are gone now, and the middle aged folks doing it now work hard. They make 17,000-23,000 per year working full time year round.
My experience with the IT techs hasn’t been so good. We bought sub-standard hard and software (wonder why) and don’t do such a good job keeping it running. The system crashes every day, and there are “patches” on top of patches. I think some of the folks got the job because of family connections rather than expertise.
Work from the TOP DOWN to save real money. Get rid of 2/3 of those with no direct teaching duties. (excluding lunchroom workers and custodians). The rest can do what teachers are having to do: double up, take on extra duties for less pay, wear many hats, etc.
Run bus routes to and from central locations rather than door to door.
Oh, and for the next 4 years (until Nathan Deal gets it all straightened out) get rid of all high school and middle school extracurriculars for the whole state. THAT will get parents fired up and anxious to solve this problem.
You don’t solve a problem until it becomes important to YOU. That is called “involving all the stakeholders.”
Principal
January 1st, 2011
10:06 am
I am principal in a school that uses a private custodial service. They come in at 10:00 at night and are gone by 5:00 the next morning. For the first time in 14 years as a principal I don’t have to worry about the cleanliness of the building or custodial absenteeism which is a never ending nightmare. The crew is managed by the contracting company and if there is a problem the company makes it right. There has been no theft since the private company started. I can focus on other things rather than the lack of paper in the bathrooms and trash being removed from the classrooms each evening. You think it is difficult to terminate a nonperforming teacher? Try termminating a nonperforming custodian. 10 times more difficult. They just move the nonperforming custodians from school to school
Ima
January 1st, 2011
10:11 am
Lee, 50K is UNREALISTIC for an electrician or HAVC worker, if they can’t do the job. This is the case with most of those in these positions. Why do you think an electrical HELPER lost his life not so long ago? The ELECTRICIAN should have been doing the job; however, do you think maybe HE didn’t know what he was doing either?!!! I have observed these individuals in my school. They do not have a clue what they are doing…WHEN THEY TRY TO DO SOMETHING!!! I was told that their supervisors and foremen do not know the jobs to give them advice or assistance. Money is just flying out the window!!!
The Columbia HS principal who was promoted to a big salary position is the one who started all of the corruptions at the Service Center. He needs to be headed for court also!!!
Child Advocate
January 1st, 2011
10:39 am
destin dawg – idiot! What classroom teacher is given paid holidays and day off? If kids are not in the clasroom, teachers don’t get paid (except for pre and post planning days). Teachers are forced to sign contracts with no salary guarantees for a set number of work days. Parents insist on thanksgiving, Christmas, fall and spring breaks. Teachers are not paid when not in the classroom.
catlady
January 1st, 2011
10:48 am
Principal: What happens when you need services during the day? Our custodians are continuously cleaning up vomit, blood, or spills, replenishing TP, etc. You just leave it till the night crew comes in?
Principal
January 1st, 2011
12:11 pm
There is one person on duty during the day to take care of issues that come up. Works just fine
Lee
January 1st, 2011
12:21 pm
@Catlady, my wife’s school contracted out the “cleaning” services a few years ago. However, they kept one custodian/maintenance man at each school to take care of the day-to-day stuff that you described as well as small maintenance items such as changing light bulbs, unstopping toilets, etc.
@IMA, I agree, if someone cannot do the job, then they certainly are not worth the money you pay. Usually, a LICENSED electrician/HVAC/plumber, etc, etc, implies a certain degree of competence [keyword; USUALLY].
bootney farnsworth
January 1st, 2011
12:45 pm
ah yes, the game of Surivior has begun.
we’ve already been playing it at GPC for some time, so y’all have fun.
please, go ahead and terminate as many of us non faculty types as you can. custodians, library workers, secretaries, tech support types, all of us who do all the things necessary for the annointed holy faculty to
brighten young minds by their mere presence.
hell, most faculty can’t manage to turn on a video projector or manage not to write on a screen clearly labeled do not write on.
please, be that stupid. watching you turn on each other will be fun.
once you find out for all your Ph.D.s you can’t function without us, you’ll turn even further on each other.
you’ve got us flunkies down to next to none making even less than we do now, even less committed to serving the kids, and less trusting of faculty than we already are -if that’s even possible. now the fun really begins.
math will be safe.
so will most sciences.
after that …
does English really matter all that much?
Foriegn Language?
Humanities in general?
PE – certainly not.
Social Studies?
God help the Arts.
you faculty fools will form a circular firing squad and start taking yourselfs out. if will look like some pathetic epsiode of dork Survivor.
and nothing gets done about the real source of the problem.
out of control spending by our of control administrators.
but at least we’ll have a new spin on an old joke: how do you
get a former teacher off your portch (spelling intentional, look it up)
pay for the pizza.
go ahead, be idiots faculty like you often are. endorse this idiotic plan. reap your whirlwind.
Dekalbite@rcatlady
January 1st, 2011
1:13 pm
DCSS has 11 Parent Resource Centers. Within those centers are 63 employees. Their salary and benefits are $4,000,000. Adding to the cost there are two Parent Liaison Specialists in the Central Office – Office of School Improvement – one makes $84,000 in salary and benefits and the other makes $78,000. NEITHER one of these coordinators in the Office of School Improvement have any teaching certificates – not even SUPPORT PERSONNEL LICENSE many of our non-teaching, have no education degree managers got in order to supervise certified personnel.
The Parent Center group has long been a favorite place to employ friends and family members. Ms. Roberts (who threatened to slug the TV reporter if further questions were asked about her daughter) has a daughter as a coordinator of one of the centers. She started there around 5 years ago. 2005 her salary was $11,384 in the Parent Center. 2008 her salary jumped to $53,292.17 & Travel Expenses $107.19 as a Family Services Coordinator. In 2009 her salary jumped to $59,895.57 still as a Family Services Coordinator. As of 2010, it stands at $61,196 ($76,500 with benefits) -while at the same time teachers took a pay cut . She does not have a teaching degree and makes more than a DCSS Masters level physics teacher with 18 years of teaching experience. Now you can see why this is a favorite place to tuck friends and family into.
I do not know how much the Parent Centers are utilized. I do know that the counselors and social workers used to perform the functions of the Parent Center employees. They should assume those functions again. Counselors and Social Workers positions were not cut these past 2 years, while almost 400 teacher positions were cut and class sizes increased. I would suggest that the $4,000,000 goes back into providing math, science, social studies and science teachers for our students and let the counselors and social workers take on the responsibilities they relinquished to the parent center group.
catlady
January 1st, 2011
3:16 pm
I really doubt that we can get custodians for less than the $17,000 plus bennies (our local pay). That is about $8.50 per hour. Once you pay for the “middleman,” can privatizing beat that? We have 4 at our school–620 students.
Let’s contract out our CO staff. I am SURE we can save money there. Almost anyone will work for less than $10,000 per month.
Concerned Parent
January 1st, 2011
3:24 pm
My 14 year old grand dauther said PaPa why don”t they just layoff the janitors at night and keep DCSS janitors for the day shift so we will feel safe and outsource the night shift with a DCSS head janitor to oversee the security and night maintenance.
APS Teacher
January 1st, 2011
3:36 pm
there is corruption everything.
NWGA Teacher
January 1st, 2011
5:34 pm
My system outsourced custodial services. In many cases, we were able to keep “our” people, particularly during the day. It has worked very well in some schools. In other schools, there was rampant theft, particularly during summer. My information comes from my own knowledge (theft of many items, paid for out of pocket) and discussions with teachers at other schools.
Ol' Roy
January 1st, 2011
6:51 pm
Same old same old. Protect the teachers at all costs – even the grossly inept and barely literate teachers. Continue producing “graduates” who are unqualified for anything other than manual labor.
catlady
January 1st, 2011
7:46 pm
“School staff are now reviewing those bids to determine if the move is cost-effective”–or, how much can the decision-makers profit off this?
Really amazed
January 1st, 2011
7:52 pm
I still don’t see why speech ther, audiologist, hearing and eye check ups can’t be the one’s outsourced!! These positions can be done via doctor visits!! Why are our tax dollars paying for medical services? If not outsourced than why not, at least be part time positions? Also, for the parents that care about their children going to college, they can hire their own graduation coach. What a bunch of waste going on in the central office. Could also cut back on so many vice princ. and administrative positions too.
Sam
January 1st, 2011
7:57 pm
Maybe the kids in ISS can clean the school for free. Might eliminate some of the behavior problems.
Really amazed
January 1st, 2011
8:04 pm
Every kid I know is already in the gifted program, making straight A’s any way so, why do they need anymore education???
Ernest
January 1st, 2011
8:24 pm
Really amazed said, I still don’t see why speech ther, audiologist, hearing and eye check ups can’t be the one’s outsourced!! These positions can be done via doctor visits!! Why are our tax dollars paying for medical services?
You do realize this is already happening. Demand for services exceeds the supply of specialist on staff hence a LOT of outsourcing is occurring in this area. Parents knowledgeable about federal and state laws can really get the services they want for their children.
Quite a bit of central office staffing is there for compliance. Remove those people and you could be creating an environment where your tax dollars are going more for lawsuits than instruction.
creative thinker
January 1st, 2011
10:57 pm
how about they took a long hard look at consolidation and incorporate specialty programs into existing schools. this would eliminate millions of expenditures from duplication of administrative staff. then they could eliminate millions more by not providing the optional transportation for magnet programs. if an employee is not doing his or her job then do what the private sector would do and enforce accountability of a job description. come on, there are many ways to look at the budget and start cuts without cutting more school staff.
another comment.
January 1st, 2011
11:03 pm
Someone better make sure that all bidders and RFP’s go through e-verify. Otherwise the contractors with really outsource these jobs to illegals. Why isn’t everyone pointing out, this is DeKalb someone at the top will be looking to line their pockets with a piece of the Contractor’s Overhead and Profit. There needs to be a requirement in all government outsourcing contracts that the new contractor provide health insurance and pension benefits that are equal, otherwise it will always look cheaper on paper to outsource. In the long run, the government gets stuck with the health insurance cost of the lowerer paid contractor workers who don’t have health insurance or a pension. They end up going to Grady or taking their kids to Children’s Healthcare, so who ends up paying? The taxpayer, at a much higher amount by having employees with no health insurance and pensions using emergency rooms. There will also be all the laid off employees drawing unemployment for the next 13 months or so, at a cost to all of the tax payers. So this is a stupid political idea.
Look at how the new Fulton County cities have seen the Contractor running the Cities has taken them to the cleaners. Their is also no employee loyalty as soon as the economy recovers, that is when the public sector salaries will once again pale to the private sector and loose employees at an all time high rate.
Concerned Grandparent
January 1st, 2011
11:31 pm
I am horrified that DeKalb wishes to cut custodians, the people who are the most in need of a job and make so little. I would be surprised if they made over $18,000 a year. If I were on the Board of Education, I would cut Central Office administrator (professional staff that rose up from principal ranks via cronyism or otherwise) costs by 50% by either firing some of these gluttons or halving their fat salaries (believe me, these jobs are GREAT whether they are being paid $100,000 or $50,000). Do NOT touch teachers or parapros, as these people are on the frontlines dealing with many at-risk children in DeKalb. These are the most crucial jobs, especially given our many at-risk kids here. Principals and APs should not be cut either, because the discipline and safety issues alone can(and should) eat up all their time. Here is one idea: if custodians retire, offer teachers these jobs on a part-time basis to supplement their teaching incomes. I know many teachers who would be willing to do these duties from 4-8 after school or weekends. That way, the system would save on benefits costs, and teachers could make another $5000 or so. OR, the kids could do it via a community service or other class, or the chronic disruptors could do it instead of sleeping in ISS.
Toto: speakin' the truth to power
January 2nd, 2011
1:11 am
Compulsory school attendance law run amok!
A cautionary tale…Help Domenic!
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=245685
catlady
January 2nd, 2011
8:40 am
“We strongly believe that the most important thing in a student’s education is the quality of the teacher in the classroom,”
Evidence of how much you can learn in 3 years in the classroom.
Ms. Downey, how about investigating the demographics of the school/classes in which Ms. Hanes taught, and anything else you can about her 3 long years in education in North Carolina.
Gina
January 2nd, 2011
9:21 am
Contracting out for cleaning services while the building is closed is okay, but daytime custodians should be school system employees. These staff members have access to all of the valuable equipment in the schools, interact regularly with students and other staff, receive and secure deliveries, are responsible for locking and unlocking the building, move furniture, move teachers’ items for classroom relocations, do minor repairs, identify problems and create work orders for the maintenance department, etc. etc. The head custodian acts as a building manager in many cases. Contracted custodians frequently have high turnover and limited English skills. School system labor has great flexibility as they are always subject to “other duties as assigned.” If custodians are not performing up to par, it is a management problem and the principal should be held accountable for it. That is not a good argument for outsourcing the whole function. If you contract out cleaning, which staff members will have to pick up all of the other duties that were being performed by the custodians?
Dekalbite@Concerned Grandparent
January 2nd, 2011
11:00 am
“Here is one idea: if custodians retire, offer teachers these jobs on a part-time basis to supplement their teaching incomes. I know many teachers who would be willing to do these duties from 4-8 after school or weekends.”
LOL. That’s a terrific way to attract high quality math, physics and chemistry teachers. Pay them low and tell them they can clean schools to make up the money. The 10 chemistry teachers a year that are certified in Georgia will really want to come to DeKalb with that job offer.
EdDawg
January 2nd, 2011
11:17 am
Fascinating link Toto. Is that for real?!
Principal
January 2nd, 2011
11:45 am
The school district custodians (the ones with the keys) were the ones stealing from the teachers and the classrooms. We have had zero theft in the year private custodians have taken over all the cleaning.
d
January 2nd, 2011
12:01 pm
Well, I guess it doesn’t matter. There won’t be any teachers left in DeKalb after the RTTT requirements prevent us from being recertified.
common sense
January 2nd, 2011
1:16 pm
First and far most, Dekalb needs to be totally aware where every cent is used in their system. Why pay the salaries of two supt., at one time? Based on Tyson pending contract(if approved), she will continue to be paid the same amount upon hiring a new supt., until the end of her contract afterwhich, her salary will return to her normal pay before the increase. Why not re-word her new contract properly to stipulate once a new hire supt., is put in place, her pay will steadily decrease immediately as her advisory role decreases? Secondly, there are way too many secretaries getting enormous pay for little work. Third, there are too many administrators who, in the good ole boy network, pay scale were maxed out just because they could and knew in time the cuts were coming so they helped themselves out by sticking their fingers into the very bottom of the pot resulting in maxed pay outs.. Fourth, why are the landscapers at Fernbank Science Center cleaning and landscaping at Fernbank Musuem? The Musuem has no affiliation with the school system. These are two separate entities. Does the Musuem pay for their services provided by the Science Center staff? Why has this been allowed for years? What happened to all of the new office furniture that was originally brought to the Mountain Industrial site that was removed by Pat Pope? What happened to all of the office furniture and equipment left at the N. Decatur Rd., complex?It is understood that every thing is still locked up in the complex..Why? Abundant waste is still occurring in DCSS and only a few areas have been accountable but not all. How can job performance be rated fairly when so many people and positions are interconnected? There is nothing fair about DCSS, because those in charge are so very crooked. Cleaning, repairing and cutting MUST began at the top in order to be effective. Otherwise, nothing will make any sense.
common sense
January 2nd, 2011
1:24 pm
Dekalb School System slogan is the school cannot live apart from the community. If this is to be believed, most of the positions to be outsourced are community members. Let’s hope the outsurcing positions will employ a good number of the already employed custodians. If not, the school will certainly live apart from the whole entire institution.
TopSchool
January 2nd, 2011
2:00 pm
Maybe they can move all these salaries into different accounts and hire some family members…
http://www.youtube.com/user/TopSchoolAtlanta#p/u/38/tHyr95P7JF0
“Reorganization Money” Diverted to Principal’s daughter on Atlanta Public School’s PAYROLL
Principal hires immediate family members to benefit from the additional money she has acquired as a result of “thinking out of the box”. ( another play on Reich’s Rhetoric..Reorganization Plan, AKA-3 Year Plan, Miscellaneous Pay, One Time Payment Form… Too many names to juggle all the accounts you can make with all this money!)
http://www.TopPublicSchoolCorruptionAtlanta.com
Teacher for Life
January 2nd, 2011
3:42 pm
So 50% of our evaluations will now be linked to students test scores…it figures. I guess education and teachers are the easiest targets for the publicans. Lots of Demon-crats in the classrooms…can’t let those prissy liberals control our kids. We got to put them in their place.
Here’s the plan…get them so caught in fighting each other for the best kids and ratting on each other that they don’t notice their loss of decent benefits. Also, get rid of all those janitors and bus drivers. Poor people don’t deserve govenment healthcare and vacation pay. Get in them contract workers with the fake id’s; you know the ones that work for cash.
And when no one wants to teach anymo, don’t you worry. We can get them people overseas to work. Just like with the RN’s. Save us some money.
Student achievement? This ain’t about student achievement.
by the way
January 2nd, 2011
4:25 pm
Where does the interest that accrued on the recent furlough reimbursement given back to the DCSS employees. Who gets that money? Shouldn’t it too be equally distributed to the same people? This is the right thing to do…. However, we are dealing with unscrupulous administrators who in the name of $$$ steals and take at every opportunity. AGAIN,NO ACCOUNTABILITY!
by the way
January 2nd, 2011
4:41 pm
Too many people paid under various and phoney job titles. Check out
openga.gov and question what these titles are and why so many are paid under” instructional other” yet many have no certification whatsoever. This matter should have been taken care of in the last layoff. This is why whatever measure the system is using does not work. Why does Fernbank Science Center have so many “maintenance” classified positions within it’s facility. Seems like a design has been put in place in order to make those schools that the administrators would like to close will and has been made to look like low enrollment meant to make certain these schools will indeed close. Removing teachers and keeping enrollment under par will definitely close a door!
tellthetruth
January 2nd, 2011
5:38 pm
I just don’t understand how anyone can believe for one second that cutting/outsourcing these 700 positions will put any money into the classrooms or improve the level of education the students will receive.
What is the going rate for a failing leader that’s making over $100,000 a year with no proven track record of success…not one of them has a productive level of success..why are parents and teachers allowing Tyson to snow everyone with this easy decision and not make her tow the line with the sorry bunch who she is surrounded with daily and not doing a darn thing to help in student success.
No one really wants to lose his/her job. But you know what, it’s going to happen and sadly it will happen to a teacher, custodian, printer, painter, or a paraprofessional before it will happen to a Central Office employee believe that.
You proud parents should be urging the BOE and Tyson to cut that central office staff at the top and only at the top..there is no one competing for those jobs. The Central Office jobs should be outsourced.
Leaders who have not produced enough successful results from the underperforming schools should have them removed. All of those Central Office positions should be listed accurately so that you, the tax paying public, can see where your money is being spent. It’s not in the clasroom. It hasn’t been since CLewis took the reigns and Tyson is continuing in his giant footsteps or should I say missteps…
Tyson had better watch where she places her feet because the rug may slip from under her when this trial begins…I think Pope is going to bring a lot of fire power to her defensive strategy and this will affect the cabinet and the BOE. Pope has the attitude that if I go down You all are going with me.
Dr. Craig Spinks /Augusta
January 2nd, 2011
6:09 pm
Maureen,
On 6/9/10 at 4:38 AM, you published on your blog a letter from a reader. Your reader’s first point involved the necessity of a forensic audit of the DCSS? Has such an audit been conducted recently? With a prospective $50M revenue shortfall, if a forensic audit of the DCSS has not been completed by a competent, disinterested, out-of-state auditing firm and its results disseminated to the people of DeKalb County, the members of the DCBOE should be sued by concerned parents and other taxpayers for misfeasance.
TopSchool
January 2nd, 2011
6:48 pm
and Maureen …Do you think the media helps to put their spin on all of this?
It appears that as long as the issues were dealing with the SOUTHSIDE Atlanta Public Schools…The Atlanta Journal was willing to peel back the layers of corruption…
Now, that it looks nasty on the NORTHSIDE of APS Atlanta…the media has spun these issues SO the real issues can be swept under the rug…
Oh My!…. I THINK I GET IT!
@Dr. Craig Spinks…I’ve tried to educate you on this topic…These are MOCK INVESTIGATIONS…I’ve been through several…They are designed to keep your head spinning…
http://www.TopPublicSchoolCorruptionAtlanta.com
RBN
January 2nd, 2011
6:59 pm
My school system privatized custodial services several years ago to save money. Our school is filthy. The custodial service can’t keep employees, even with 13% unemployment because of low pay and no benefits. The pride our custodian showed each day in keeping a very old schoolk neat and clean is long gone. How will they make a profit? Low pay and no benefits is the only way. Just a small part of the slide to the bottom taking place in our schools. I do munderstand why privatizing is a tempting path to take, but the results are not good for our schools. Lesser of two evils? Perhaps, but evil none the less.
Ernest
January 2nd, 2011
7:17 pm
@Dekalbite 11:00am, I thought the exact same thing as I read your post. Maybe that’s the way things were done long ago but today’s teachers has far too much on their plate to also add custodian to their responsibilities.
Dekalbite@Dr. Craig Spinks
January 2nd, 2011
7:35 pm
Below is a link to DeKalb Schools Watch regarding the 2004 Compensation and Classification audit that was paid for by DCSS taxpayers and conducted under Dr. Johnny Brown’s tenure by the independent consulting firm Ernst and Young. According to the AJC, the Ernst and Young consultant said that 2,500 non-teaching employees were being over paid by around $15,000,000 a year. Shortly after the consultant presented his findings, Dr. Brown was out and Dr. Lewis was in. He told the BOE that the consultants were not correct per the DCSS Human Resources employees – it was ONLY $2,000,000 a year in over payments, and he was not going to lower salaries (see BOE notes in this article). The BOE meeting with any minutes and attachments (i.e. the actual audit summary) disappeared from the BOE website. We know the meeting was held though because we can read the AJC article citing the meeting and the meeting date is referenced in other BOE minutes.
Lewis went on to add many more non-teaching positions while he cut teaching positions, so DCSS is so much worse off.
http://dekalbschoolwatch.blogspot.com/2010/04/how-much-have-non-teaching-salary.html
AJC article:
http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=AT&p_theme=at&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&s_hidethis=no&p_field_label-0=Author&p_field_label-1=title&p_bool_label-1=AND&p_text_label-1=Study:%20DeKalb%20schools%20overpay%20workers&s_dispstring=headl
I have not read that Ms. Tyson has proposed a forensic audit nor has the BOE pushed her to do so. This should have been the first thing done. The audit that Johnny Brown had done was finished and presented to the BOE within 6 months. The decisions she is making now regarding the budget and personnel would have the necessary data.
If DCSS parents and the two new BOE members do push for an audit, they really need to ask that an independent auditor:
1. Compares the number of employees in departments and functional groups to other school systems in metro Atlanta
2. Compares the salaries of non-teaching and teaching personnel performing the same functions to other school systems in metro Atlanta as well as to businesses who employ personnel who perform these functions
3. Compares the Teacher Turnover rate in DCSS to comparable systems in the Atlanta metro area
Facts and data from outside auditors of the caliber of Ernst and Young (no one that has any connection to anyone in DCSS or the BOE) should drive the process. That’s the fiscally prudent and transparent way to look at all expense centers, particularly ones funded by taxpayers. Most businesses, state, and county offices (including the GSU audit for DeKalb County Commissioners) have been pursuing outside audits during this recession. Perhaps looking at the 2004 audit and its summary would shed some light on exactly what happened to the savings that are reported in the AJC article, alert taxpayers to what an audit is, how a professional audit should be conducted, and how the results and and actions subsequent to the audit are shared with the public.
At this time, DCSS BOE minutes are not being made public since July, 2010 for the first time since 2002. But that’s a whole other issue.
Georgia Teacher
January 2nd, 2011
7:50 pm
Sad though it may be on an individual basis, letting support staff go is a better choice than letting teachers go IF the system also tries to improve teaching quality. A bad teacher is not as valuable, perhaps, as a good custodian in helping a school be a place where students want to be. But overall, families make their choices about where to live based on the result of good teaching, not good custodian-ship. Often, though, I’ve noticed that the cleanest schools are also the most effective schools. Could it, perhaps, all come back to leadership? And just where is leadership in DCSS–please remind me?
ScienceTeacher671
January 2nd, 2011
9:17 pm
@catlady: According to her bio, Erin Hames spent three years teaching at Wakefield Middle School in Raleigh, NC (http://www.greatschools.org/cgi-bin/nc/other/2878#finance) before deciding that education was not her calling and enrolling in law school.
irisheyes
January 2nd, 2011
9:48 pm
Here’s the demographics for the entire school system that Ms. Hames taught for. I searched for a school by school breakdown, but I couldn’t find anything.
http://www.wcpss.net/demographics/
Here it is in a nutshell:
White – 49.5%
Black – 24.8%
Hispanic – 14.6%
F&R Lunch – 32.4%
LEP – 7.9%
ESL – 4.3%
ScienceTeacher671
January 2nd, 2011
10:39 pm
The demographics for Wakefield Middle School (according to the link I posted earlier) are
White – 66%
Black – 22%
Hispanic – 7%
Asian/Pacific Islander – 5%
Another site, http://www.schooldatadirect.org/?gclid=CMT-wfiKnaYCFYXu7QodHzv5aQ gives the demographics as 69.2% White, 17.3% Black, 5.7% Hispanic, 4.1% Asian/Pacific Islander, and 0.3% Native American/Alaskan Native. It says 15.1% of the students are disadvantaged.
The school report card is here:
http://www.ncreportcards.org/src/schDetails.jsp?pSchCode=594&pLEACode=920&pYear=2009-2010
The school appears to exceed district and statewide averages for test scores. Also has smaller class sizes than other schools in the district.
According to this site, it is one of the highest-rated middle schools in the state:
http://www.greatschools.org/north-carolina/raleigh/2878-Wakefield-Middle-School/
Dekalbite
January 3rd, 2011
12:15 pm
Why do we still have Fernbank Science Center which consumes $7,000,000 in the DCSS budget and teaches children one science lesson a year. Transporting 30+ children to a science center for the teacher to teach them for 1.5 to 2 hours once a year is not only ineffective from a science content aspect but it is an ecological nightmare to put thousands of buses on the road and spew pollutants into the air (is that oxymoronic for an ecology lesson?).
See the DeKalb School Watch for an article on the financial particulars:
http://dekalbschoolwatch.blogspot.com/2010/03/are-proposed-dcss-budget-cuts-going-to.html
creative thinker
January 3rd, 2011
3:26 pm
@ Dekalbite, agreed, but as with the magnet parents, the parents that are in that district will not go quietly to any changes to their system. Seems like the Fernbank issue was hotly debated last year. Dekalb has many obvious areas to review for ways to not only decrease expenditures but increase efficiency. Problem is = we don’t have leadership to make that happen from a comprehensive standpoint.
Bloodbike
January 5th, 2011
3:29 pm
Soon and very soon you this country is going to get what it is asking for. A teaching force lacking any real teachers. Do you actually believe that custodians are equal to teachers or administration level professionals? That they are needed more than the people who are trying to educate your children??? Sad, sad day in America.
Can’t wait until we reach the point where everyone who wanted to be a teacher take their talent to other professions and we have a teacher shortage. These things run in cycles.