And then there were three, two and none. Other DeKalb finalist quits and withdraws from DeKalb search.
Arthur Culver just resigned from his job in Illinois, but also withdrew his name from the DeKalb search.
Well, this is getting interesting:
The other finalist for the DeKalb school chief job, Arthur Culver, has resigned as superintendent in Champaign, Ill. He told the local paper that he has also withdrawn his name from contention in DeKalb.
With everything that has occurred in the last several days, I felt it was in my best interest to withdraw,” Culver told the News-Gazette.
So, not one of the three original finalists is still in contention for the top slot in DeKalb, forcing the county to start anew. I wonder if this bizarre process and all the collateral damage along the way will scare away other prospects.
This very open search process seems to have destabilized Cox in North Carolina and led Culver to resign in Illinois.
Some of the fallout comes from the openness that the law requires and that even strong school chiefs like Andres Alonso in Baltimore decry as too risky.
At a panel here, Alonso made the point with which Cox is probably in full agreement: Once your current system knows that you were considering a job elsewhere, there is a wariness about your commitment and a skepticism about everything you say. I would not be surprised to see Cox take another job soon.
The law requires release of the finalists’ names, but many school systems skirt the law by releasing the name of a single finalist in clear circumvention of the transparency intent. (Fulton just did this, avoiding the messiness of open government that DeKalb is now seeing.)
Taxpayers deserve input on the school chief as they pay the salary, but it didn’t work in this case. The problem with closing the process and shutting out public — as some of you are suggesting — is that people can get enraged to find out there is only one option for school chief, and that they had no ability to participate in the vetting.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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210 comments Add your comment
PatDowns
April 26th, 2011
1:01 pm
@ Education for All
April 26th, 2011
12:39 pm
“…It is up to that journalist’s conscience, of course, but in this case, I think the tipster’s identity IS the story, as it was a move designed to derail forward progress in DCSS and protect the corruption that lies therein.”
In this case the “journalists” in question became active participants. no longer acted as reporters but active participants. They abrogated their role as reporters of the news by aiding and abetting in making the news.
Annie R
April 26th, 2011
1:04 pm
LOL, they probably wanted to give it to Ramona Tyson the whole time and just ran these other folks off….Thank God my son is graduated and gone from Dekalb County Schools. What is it about school boards in the metro area, they are too dumb to get out of their own way.
North Atl H.S. Teacher
April 26th, 2011
1:08 pm
Who would want the job?
joe white
April 26th, 2011
1:14 pm
Its a shame that our kids are surffering. I am a product of dekalb schools and if the requirements was no in a kids favor i would teach but issues that teachers face are hell, they have to be mom and dad and the parents turn against the good teachers. dam a ceo of the school board we need good teachers and let the ceo do the job for half the salary if they gave a dam. our kids in trouble that is why i am home schooling my kids. i can teach all that a teacher can. Dekalb get a life and people start supporting our teachers.
Let's be real
April 26th, 2011
1:16 pm
The fact that Cox could not handle the public scrutiny of the open negotiations showed she was not ready for the “big time”.
Really, Really?
April 26th, 2011
1:17 pm
It is really disgusting that people print lies, gossip and rumors and they linger in print to hurt others. Lillie Cox, Gloria Davis, and Arthur Culver are all smart to get out of this process. I have two close friends living in Champaign, and they told me that Culver has been a target for some (two who got on the Board to make him miserable) since he came there and made some adults uncomfortable. The former teacher union president is on the board. Both of my friends (who have kids of different ages and are friends with employees) say that that the stuff about harrassment and “jail” are outright lies. If there was any proof, we could find it. There is none. They said that he and the board were getting ready to part ways because they were tired of each other. When Dekalb became public, the board got mad when he said he was leaving anyway to the newspaper. But the board is fair enough to recognize his accomplishments. See their web site at http://www.champaignschools.org. Maureen, I urge you to delete defaming comments about a person that I hear worked really hard for the kids in that town. This blog is likely hearing from disgruntled employees, which any good superintendent has or somebody whose kid didn’t get to play on the team. Maureen, you said you got emails. Check your sources. Mine are good. They say not everyone loves Culver, but that he pulled the schools through the consent decree and has never been accused of doing anything wrong. Good Grief!
Rob
April 26th, 2011
1:23 pm
Why is the AJC not posting the name of their source that leaked Cox’s contract demands Saturday morning? What are they hiding?
@Maureen
April 26th, 2011
1:28 pm
It may not be illegal to leak negative information regarding a candidate your fellow BOE members voted for and you didn’t want, but is it ethical? Ethics is actually a big deal in BOE members. Ethics violations are important considerations for anyone who is an elected official and hold the public trust. I would be interested in posters who think what the BOE member(s?) did by leaking this information is unethical.
An Open Records request should be used to find out the 3 BOE members who voted against Cox. At least then the field could be narrowed down.
Thanks for assuring us it wasn’t Tyson. But you still don’t know if Tyson knew about this or not. Lewis must have known about the ouster of Brown when the BOE went through their chess game to install him as superintendent. The candidate that they used to entice other BOE members to dump Brown seemed a real shoo-in, but he was a red herring. What a shocker it was when Lewis emerged as the superintendent. Some of the BOE members just played a better game than others to get exactly what they wanted.
Please take some time and read the BOE minutes for the first 2 or 3 years Lewis was superintendent. It seems every other meeting he was recommending the hiring or promotion of a BOE or former BOE member’s relative or a relative of one of his Cabinet members.
Look at the minutes from an April 20, 2005 DCSS BOE meeting:
“Present at the meeting were Chair Frances Edwards, Elizabeth Andrews, Sarah Copelin-Wood, Chip Franzoni, Simone Manning-Moon, Zepora Roberts and Superintendent Crawford Lewis. Vice Chair Bebe Joyner, Cassandra Anderson, and Lynn Cherry Grant were absent…
….
Mr. Tim Freeman, Associate Superintendent of Administrative Services, recommended that the Board approve the appointment of Philandrea Guillory, a relative of a board member, as Director of the Public, Press and Partner Relations Department. A motion was made by Ms. Andrews, seconded by Ms. Roberts and carried with a unanimous vote.”
A former superintendent’s son recommended the daughter of the BOE chairwoman be promoted, and according to the BOE meeting notes the BOE chairwoman voted on the promotion of her own daughter (no mention of her abstaining from the vote, and she was present according to the minutes).
Ms. Edwards daughter currently makes $144,150 in salary and benefits (benefits calculated at 25%) and her husband who was also promoted under Lewis makes $144,135 in salary and benefits. Many of the current and former BOE members have relatives employed by DCSS. Can you see the millions that are at stake for them to keep the status quo.
I see this as an ethical issue, and the behavior of the BOE member who leaked this information has not behaved ethically. What kind of example does this set for the children of DeKalb County?
Dunwoody Mom
April 26th, 2011
1:30 pm
Richard Belcher reported last night on WSB that the 3 who voted against Cox were Bowen, Cunningham, Walker.
atlmom
April 26th, 2011
1:31 pm
Kira Willis for School Superintendent!!!!!
Dunwoody Mom
April 26th, 2011
1:31 pm
Sorry….Bowen, Cunningham and Edler…Belcher was not sure if Walker was present.
Ed Johnson
April 26th, 2011
1:33 pm
Contrary to @Ed’s contention that the ‘20 question dog and pony show’ was ridiculous,” the three candidates’ presentations were extraordinarily informative and offered great insight, a testament to the wonderful messiness of transparency and democracy.
As said earlier…
DeKalb County Board of Education’s selection of any one of the candidate superintendents will expose just what the board values or chooses to value for the county’s children. That’s because each candidate mixes different “thinking” value systems in varying degrees – from weakly (-) to strongly (+) – along this suggested continuum:
0: Mechanistic Thinking: Gloria Davis (+)
2: Behavioristic Thinking: Gloria Davis (-), Arthur Culver (+)
4: Humanistic Thinking: Arthur Culver (-), Lillie Cox (+)
6: Systems Thinking: Lillie Cox (+)
A time scale can be put over this continuum to range from 19th century thinking, at point zero, to 21st century thinking, at point six.
Hopefully, the DeKalb School Board will inquire to Lillie Cox’s indirect reference to having as a mentor and a source the now state superintendent who, until a year or so ago, was superintendent of another small district near her current superintendency, in Hickory, NC.
Ed Johnson
Advocate for Quality in Public Education
edwjohnson@aol.com
(404) 505-8176
Dunwoody Mom
April 26th, 2011
1:33 pm
But, I’m not clear if this was the vote on the initial contract offer or the vote on the last “try” at getting Cox to agree.
thomas
April 26th, 2011
1:39 pm
I also wonder why AJC and other media outlets feel it is ok for them to publish a story on a confidential process. Other than getting the reporter a star for a “scoop,” what good does it actually do? Do they enjoy being used as a pawn by these politicians? Is it their “power trip”? Sometimes (most of the time?) those media people are the most arrogant people in our society.
Pete
April 26th, 2011
1:49 pm
Although we all know that running one of the metro Atlanta school systems is a really big job, and in the private sector a top executive would easily make $275K or more in a business on a similar scale, it becomes unseemly when these negotiations become public on the heels of threatened teacher furloughs, program cutbacks and so on. The message is that these execs “just won’t perform” unless they are paid $275K and get 28 days’ vacation, while teachers are having their middle class status threatened. The rank and file is expected to perform at top level for the honor of the job, while at the top, the only motivator is money.
Cere
April 26th, 2011
1:50 pm
I saw that report too – I think it was the three who were against Cox – and judging by Womack’s outrage in this report, he was one of the 5 who tried to plead with her to give us a try.
http://stonemountain.11alive.com/news/education/dekalb-school-board-member-blasts-media-leaks/59459
PatDowns
April 26th, 2011
1:50 pm
@ Rob
April 26th, 2011
1:23 pm
Why is the AJC not posting the name of their source that leaked Cox’s contract demands Saturday morning? What are they hiding?
The AJC is not posting the name of its source because that person asked to remain anonymous for giving the insider info. It’s not like this person was whistle blowing or reporting a crime. It is perfectly legal for the BOE to discuss personnel matters without public scrutiny in executive session. The AJC and WSB will not admit there is a difference. The hypocrisy of keeping anonymous the name of the disgruntled leaker over something not even illegal. Journalism at its arrogant worst.
Cere
April 26th, 2011
1:56 pm
I find it curious that it’s Paul Womack who makes a public statement about the leak – not Tom Bowen. Tom is the Chair – Tom should have expressed the outrage from the very first announcement. In fact, TOM should have made the announcement! What’s up with that? Tom? I guess you must actually just be relieved that Cox dropped out. Just how bad was the pressure on her? Tom? Why are you so non-chalant about a leak of this level of importance? Tom? You speak to the press ALL the time, and in fact, since Cox dropped out you have been dropping the Tyson as permanent superintendent idea ALL over the press – but you express NO issue with the fact that secret discussions were leaked??? What is up with that Tom?
Dunwoody Mom
April 26th, 2011
1:57 pm
Well, since Bowen didn’t want Cox, it is not surprising that he is not upset by her withdrawal. However, he should be addressing the leaks – unless of course, he WAS the leak.
Cere
April 26th, 2011
2:02 pm
In fact, Tom, you don’t even have an issue with your own manipulative behavior when you wrote a letter and electronically affixed the signatures of the entire board expressing the BOARD’s unified opposition to SB 79. No problem for you to go ahead and draft a letter and then direct a system employee to hand deliver it to the very delegate, Howard Mosby, who requested that you send a letter? Wow – you really have some political aspirations Tom! Aren’t you a lawyer? Doesn’t that require a license? And a certain expectation of ethics?
Cere
April 26th, 2011
2:07 pm
Sorry. It just looks to me like our chair is trying very, very hard to make sure that the board stays exactly the same and their favorite interim stays on as their permanent choice. He is going waaaay out of his way to make sure these things happen. At least that’s how it looks.
I’ll go do some yoga now…
Smith
April 26th, 2011
2:08 pm
@Dr. Trotter: Are you one of those people who thinks any type of career advancement is evil? “Why would anyone be willing to picked [sic] and traverse the country for a job?” Well, perhaps they want to advance their careers. We want these type of people here because they want to better themselves and their school systems. Arne Duncan was the CEO of Chicago Public Schools and now he is the Sec. of Ed. for the U.S. The CEO part was the career booster that got him the position (I’m sure knowing the Big O didn’t hurt, either).
As for this position in DeKalb, anyone who takes it on is willing to sacrifice their career should they fail. With great risk comes great reward.
Maureen Downey
April 26th, 2011
2:13 pm
@thomas, There are many stories that changed things for the better that began with sources who were not named. But I can assure you that unnamed sources are not used lightly and have to be approved by top editors at the AJC.
Maureen
Ricardo Cabeza
April 26th, 2011
2:17 pm
Hey, let’s give ol’ Terrel Bolton a buzz! He already knows his way around ‘DEE-kap’ county and he could surely do just as good a job being school bos as he did beign da PO-leece chief!
Cassie
April 26th, 2011
2:19 pm
“How ’bout the AJC doing an in-depth examination of the pay/benefits of all the metro superintendents, including termination pay, contributions to 401K made in addition to pay, cars, etc.”
Amen to that! The education superintendant pay thing is a SCAM. They are not in the private sector – they are public servants.
Let’s face it, these people are administrators – they hold meetings. They didn’t develop a cure for cancer, or invent the iPhone, or create a new industry. Why on earth are they paid such absurd salaries?
—–
For example, the Centers for Disease Control and the DeKalb County School System are both government agencies with about 14,000 employees.
Why is CDC’s Director Tom Frieden – who has an MD, an MPH, and several decades of experience – “only” paid about $175,000 a year, while Cox was insisting on (and apparently was going to be offered) $275,000 a year with all those extra vacation days, a position as an adjuct professor at Emory, and 16 months’ severance pay if she got fired? Wow.
I mean, if there’s a major disease outbreak, I can rest easy knowing that Dr. Frieden’s going to be putting 90-hour weeks until the problem’s been taken care of. His family is probably not happy about it, but he is a public servant and crazy hours is what it takes sometimes to get the job done. He doesn’t expect to be given five weeks’ vacation a year and be handed an adjunct professor job at Emory….he expects to be the Director of CDC.
I mean, seriously – these people aren’t in the private sector, they’re in the public sector. If they want to be paid like some superstar CEO, they should go work at a private company. There are hundreds if not thousands of educated, experienced, qualified people who would take the job of school superintendent at a Senior Executive Service (SES) salary of $175,000 a year.
HaHaITold U
April 26th, 2011
2:19 pm
I am so happy that you all are finally seeing the light of Tom Bowen. He has always been manipulative. Why don’t you all ask him about the hiring of the principal at Brownsmill Elementary. The Superintendent will be an insider. Oh and by the way, Why is Robert Mosley so quiet these days?
Berha
April 26th, 2011
2:23 pm
@ REALLY REALLY. I too have contacts with Champaign County schools. What was stated about Culvert and the law suits, as well as mishandling of public funds( gross misconduct), is true! These are not lies or gossip. Yes, Culvert did have public enemies, but his behavior did lead him to resign. Don’t be angry because you and your”friends” have been left out of the loop.
Jack
April 26th, 2011
2:27 pm
So you can’t drag people through the mud, publicly bully them over salary negotiations and expect them to still take your job? Wow! What a concept!
Frustrated and Resigned
April 26th, 2011
2:27 pm
@ Michael in Decatur re: If Dekalb is too big a job for one super, then let’s divide the county up into a more manageable size. OK, so why not consider this? It would, of course, mean breaking up the county government, as well, but that’s not such a bad thing either. We get rid of the entire school board and let each smaller portion select its own school board. We get rid of the layers of middle management in the school system, many of whom are making tons of money to do very little, and simplify the hierarchy. We might then have two school systems which can function in a healthy way. We need to face reality: going down the same path hasn’t worked in the past, isn’t working now, and won’t work going forward. We’ve got to try something new and different — with new and different people.
Henry Grady
April 26th, 2011
2:30 pm
Thomas hit it right on the head. While the story should be ‘who leaked confidential negotations’, the AJC and WSB have been pushing hard on the ‘candidates drop out’ angle. Why? Because they made the choice for a scoop over reporting the news. If the unnamed source is part of the story, then the only ethical thing is to not use them as a source. The AJC can’t report on a key element…who submarined the process…because of this ethical lapse.
Deep Throat wasn’t one of the Watergate burglars or a political rival…he was an FBI investigator with no dog in the fight. Whoever this source was clearly is not in the same neutral position. Richard Belcher and the AJC should have passed on the source so they could report the whole story. Instead of journalism, you got news.
tim
April 26th, 2011
2:33 pm
Hey Maureen….according to you, the next time I rob a bank I won’t be breaking a law, I’ll be “circumventing” it.
Get real for a change!
Henry Grady
April 26th, 2011
2:39 pm
Are BOE members county provided emails and phone records subject to open records requests? Since we know the AJC isn’t going to submit one, can anyone else submit a request to see if we can find the leak?
southernopinion
April 26th, 2011
2:42 pm
Superintendent must
#1 Be Asian male
#2 Possess integrity and honesty
#3 Proven managerial skills
JM
April 26th, 2011
2:43 pm
Representative government is better than the chaos we see in this search. Elect people you can trust, give them your expectations, and expect them to follow the expectations. If they don’t elect someone else.
Write Your Board Members
April 26th, 2011
2:45 pm
Keep in mind that for some of the board members, their constituents wouldn’t care if they were the leak. As far as I know, nothing criminal has been committed, so what are the consequences? More disdain from the public, most of whom can’t vote for you anyway?
DeKalb is a mess.
Cere
April 26th, 2011
2:52 pm
Ok – so – apologies to Tom – I am not accusing you – I’m just so upset at your lack of outrage! And I was already upset with you over the letter! Just do the right thing. You should – just to live up to your oath of service to the bar. The WHOLE truth is a very specific thing.
Regardless, whoever did it has broken board policy AND has cost DCSS hundreds of thousands of dollars. Whoever did it literally stole that money from DCSS. That person must be fired for cause or forced to resign, must make financial restitution and should be prosecuted to the full extent the law allows.
I am just baffled as to why Tom doesn’t seem to have an issue with a leak of this magnitude. His response has basically been – maybe we’ll just go with Ramona”. That won’t fix what ails this board Tom. Someone leaked a major negotiation that by law must stay behind closed doors. To us regular taxpaying folks, that is a very big deal. We won’t let it drop.
Cere
April 26th, 2011
2:54 pm
@Write Your Board Members – I see your point. It’s like when my big dog steals a hamburger from the grill. He gets admonished for a minute, but in reality – it was very much worth it. He got what he wanted.
chillywilly
April 26th, 2011
3:05 pm
Thank you Thomas Bowen, Jay Cunningham and Eugene Walker for voting against Lillie Cox and saving the taxpayers of Dekalb County tons of money. Her demands were outrageous. I’m confident that you can find a superintendent that is much more competent than this woman and it won’t cost you two arms & two legs to hire her. See ya Lillie!
@chillywilly
April 26th, 2011
3:08 pm
Have you even looked at the lack of student achievement in DCSS recently or do you think DCSS is a jobs program that is not accountable for educating its students?
thomas
April 26th, 2011
3:19 pm
@ Maureen,
The point wasn’t about the use of anonymous source. The point is about the story itself serving any good. Why does the public need to know that a district is negotiating with someone? A lot of personnel decisions are made confidentially for good reasons – maybe people in the media just don’t think they are good reasons and they would rather use them for their own advancement.
thomas
April 26th, 2011
3:19 pm
By the way, I also don’t believe in “the end justifies the means,” either.
Maureen Downey
April 26th, 2011
3:23 pm
@thomas, This was an extraordinary contract, given standard school chief deals in Georgia. I also think that many people in DeKalb would have been alarmed at some of the provisions.
I do understand the problems with negotiating in the public eye, but I have had many politicians tell me that you hve to understand that close attention comes with the territorywhen you take a high-profile government job.
Is it the best way to get the best candidate?
In some cases, I think the scrutiny and the criticisms are too much and people shun the jobs. I still think the Cox would have to expect a lot more scrutiny from all quarters if she took this job, the media, the parents, the community as a whole, the teachers. I assume that she was not accustomed to this degree of attention.
Maureen
atlmom
April 26th, 2011
3:26 pm
okay, so why do they need to pay $275k? because they can’t even find anyone who is willing to take the job even at that salary. or am I wrong?
Seriously – the head of the CDC probably loves his job – and the press isn’t in his office every day trying to see how he’s screwing up the place.
That’s why these people want these salaries. typical superintendents of these types of school systems don’t last five years. and then what do you do? you get blamed for not ‘turning things around’ when everything around you is dysfunctional. how do you get another job after that?
Jo
April 26th, 2011
3:27 pm
Wow! Maureen — what a cop out!
“I can assure you that unnamed sources are not used lightly and have to be approved by top editors at the AJC.” (Tuesday, April 26, 2011)
“But here’s my position: If I know something important, you are going to know it, too. The newspaper is not paying me to collect information and then hide it from readers. If it is relevant, if it is newsworthy, if it involves tax dollars, then my job and the job of this newspaper is to report it.” (Sunday, April 24, 2011)
Here’s my position, Maureen, and I am sure it is similar to that of other AJC readers and subscribers:
The REAL story is that a DeKalb County School System Board of Education member, for personal agenda reasons, knowingly broke BOE policy and revealed confidential contract negotiations with a candidate for superintendent who had been approved by the majority of the BOE.
It now appears very likely that the person who leaked the information may have been BOE Chair Tom Bowen.
In your holier-than-thou post on April 24, 2011 (appropriately Easter Sunday) aimed at people like me who objected to the AJC and WSB running this particular story, you said, “If I know something important, you are going to know it, too. If it is relevant, if it is newsworthy, if it involves tax dollars, then my job and the job of this newspaper is to report it.”
Well, Maureen … knowing the name of the person who leaked confidential negotiations:
(1) is relevant (this person has virtually assured that no worthwhile or viable candidate for superintendent will have any interest in working for a back-stabbing BOE who thinks nothing of breaking BOE policies to satisfy a personal agenda.)
(2) is newsworthy (in a state and a county with abysmal education results, this person has consigned DeKalb’s public school students to an inferior public education for the foreseeable future.
(3) involves tax dollars (this person has cost DCSS hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars; restitution must be made)
The person who leaked this confidential information must be held accountable — morally, fiscally and legally. This person must be fired for cause or told to resign, must reimburse DCSS for all taxpayer dollars spent during the superintendent candidate search, and must be prosecuted to the full extent allowed by law.
As you said, it is your job and the job of the newspaper to report it what you know.
So, Maureen you and/or upper management at Cox/WSB/AJC know the name of the person who leaked the negotiation information.
Report what you know or resign. Your credibility is shot if you don’t follow your own statement:
“If it is relevant, if it is newsworthy, if it involves tax dollars, then my job and the job of this newspaper is to report it.”
Write Your Board Members
April 26th, 2011
3:32 pm
Jo
The AJC and WSB have a right to judge what they think is newsworthy and they have an obligation to protect their sources — for better or worse.
What should upset us all is that the calibre of the candidates was so weak and yet our board of education felt that they should proceed, rather than ask Ray and Associates to start over.
R826
April 26th, 2011
3:33 pm
Jo – RIGHT ON!
mrJimsOnTheLake
April 26th, 2011
3:33 pm
All of the school super’s in all counties are ridiculously overpaid and hideously under-worked. A salary of $75k a year is plenty for these morons. They do little work.
R826
April 26th, 2011
3:35 pm
@Write Your Board Members – how do you know that the calibre (?) of the candidates was so weak? Not sure what I have read anywhere that indicates that was the case. And if it was a weak group, sure seems like another WASTE OF MONEY to go to the same consulting group that brought us the “weak cast of characters” and have them take another dip in the pond, doesn’t it?
R826
April 26th, 2011
3:38 pm
@Maureen – so, you think some in the county would have been alarmed at some of the provisions? You mean the provisions that had not been agreed to, may never have been agreed to, but were put on the table early in the negotiations, per your story or another from the AJC? I’ve spent the last 25 years negotiating large contracts and much of what gets put on the table in the first few days never makes it to the final draft. This was “leaked” for one reason – someone didn’t want to go with Cox and I’m a little shocked at how the AJC is defending their poor judgement.
Georgia Coach
April 26th, 2011
3:42 pm
Elected Superintendents are not always the best. I know of one who was elected in Tennessee and his background was as a high school band director and six months as an Assistant Principal.
There is no way that he was qualified for a position of this magnitude. That is a lot of what you had when they were elected.
I will take an appointed Superintendent any day.