Breaking news: Dr. Hall farewell message: CRCT probe of APS will show “alarming conclusions”

Dunwoody Mom

May 27th, 2011
1:44 pm

What kind of “leader” takes absolutely no responsiblity for such institutional failings?

mothers concerned

May 27th, 2011
1:51 pm

Hey!!! Clayton County you scored better than Atlanta Public Schools!!!!

Frustrated Taxpayer

May 27th, 2011
1:54 pm

Had to repost this.
I am beyond disgusted by this whole process. The state promised a speedy investigation. It has FAILED the students and taxpayers.

To those who say “Beverly Hall and her gang is now leaving,” you are delusional. The damage has been done. Many of the faculty and administrators who FAILED students and taxpayers, out of fear and coercion, remain employed by the district. They may have different roles, but they continue to do damage.

What’s the harm done? Call 10 alums from various APS high schools and ask them how they fared during their freshman year at college. More than one student has told me APS failed to prepare them for the rigor of college courses. Ask how many held on to their HOPE scholarships. Ask how many see that money hanging by a thread as they overload on summer courses or work summer jobs to make up the difference.

As for the board, each and every parent and Atlanta taxpayer should attend at least one of these Monday board meetings to see the return on your investment. After that, I dare you to ignore another name on a school board ballot.

Leaders lead by example.

former SPARK parent

May 27th, 2011
1:54 pm

The most alarming conclusion of all is one we never managed to reach: hold accountable the superintendent who presided over this massive cheating scandal and who actively sought to hide evidence of it from the public and the BOE.

But we got diverted by our Board’s infighting (our BOE members are perhaps the only people on earth who could make Beverly Hall look honest and competent).

Beverly Hall: luckiest woman alive! Hope you have the good grace to send a bouquet of roses to Cecily Harsch-Kinnane for never doubting your integrity, even when every available piece of evidence clearly showed the rest of us you have none. And while you’re flower-shopping, don’t forget Maureen, who stayed stone silent rather than stake out a courageous, journalistic position on your dishonesty and fraud.

Curious One

May 27th, 2011
2:06 pm

What a leader ? She should lead the parade to jail and forfeititure of the past earnings !

Perplexed

May 27th, 2011
2:16 pm

Does this actually come as a surprise or shock to anyone?

catlady

May 27th, 2011
2:25 pm

I don’t think it was the “district” she worked to advance.

I guess if APS was the Titanic, the captain would NOT be going down with the ship!

JimBo

May 27th, 2011
2:25 pm

Goodbye Cheater!

ABC

May 27th, 2011
2:29 pm

Good riddance. But too late.

Greg

May 27th, 2011
2:31 pm

How sad! Even sadder is that the focus of the Mayor, SACs and the black political elite has been solely and completely on the five board members who screamed the loudest when they saw what was going on. Well, now the board is about to go back to smiling politely and doing the bidding the business establishment, while no one will be held accountable and the children are a fleeting thought.

Power corrupts! Thanks, Ms. Hall, thanks mayor Reed, thanks Dr. Elgart.

MikeDawg

May 27th, 2011
2:37 pm

Let me get this right: she’s in charge of APS, but shares no blame for cheating, leadership voids, etc. Wow, so you can have it both ways!

Former Spark parent

May 27th, 2011
2:51 pm

maureen: That’s your example of hard-hitting reporting? A piece so ancient and flaccid it deserves its own Viagra commercial?

Not to mention that it doesn’t draw a single conclusion. You are ever reluctant to pin specific blame on Beverly Hall, despite her criminal acts (specifically trying to evade the state’s open records law, a law you, more than most, should hold dear). You’re just one among many, many good people who have been duped by this woman, but I guess I fell you would be smart enough to wake up eventually.

So tell us, as she departs, what you think of her now?

Come on, this is your last chance to avoid looking like as big a fool as Cecily Harsch-Kinnane…

catlady

May 27th, 2011
2:51 pm

“Breaking news: Dr. Hall farewell message: CRCT probe of APS will show “alarming conclusions””

I doubt this is REALLY ‘breaking news”. So many have been saying this for YEARS now, it hardly qualifies as breaking. And if the “breaking” part is that B Hall has said it, well, you would have to be pretty stupid to think that she just found out about this!

When will the MONEY be recouped? When will we see the perp walk? THAT would be “breaking news!”

James

May 27th, 2011
2:59 pm

The record scholarship dollars that she is praising are going mostly to students WHO DO NOT LIVE IN THE ATLANTA SCHOOL DISTRICT. These children live in unincorporated South Fulton County, Douglas County, Clayton County and Dekalb County. Most of Atlanta’s top students are from outside of the district. I personally know of quite a few. APS will not stop them because it helps their bottom line. It’s outrageous!!!

Riddle me this? How can you have an overall 4.0 GPA at graduation and not be considered the Valedictorian or Salutatorian of your class? I’ll tell you. When the administration of the APS school chooses to make the decision based upon the core curriculum grades…. Exactly, if you have a 4.0 overall you have to have a 4.0 in your core curriculum. Duhhhh. That’s what happened last night at one of the graduations. The brightest student received all of the scholarships and awards (even the Beverly Hall Award) and not the honor of being the valedictorian. Beverly Hall’s APS. You go figure. Glad she’s leaving I just wish she’d take half the staff with her.

Reality

May 27th, 2011
3:02 pm

She should have just said one thing: “I hold myself fully responsible and I am very sorry.”

catlady

May 27th, 2011
3:14 pm

Former Spark parent: I just sucked my Pepsi down wrong!

Throwing Money At Minority Groups

May 27th, 2011
3:26 pm

When has throwing money at minority groups had a positive or desired result for the taxpayer?

another view

May 27th, 2011
3:34 pm

Hall owns this no matter how hard she tries to escape it. Period. Her watch, her fault, her problem. The Georgia Professional Standards Commission should hang her from the mast and remove her certification.

Lee

May 27th, 2011
3:37 pm

The questions that the AJC should be asking is:

1. Why did this investigation take so long? What’s it been, a year-and-a-half? Two years?

2. Why is this pitiful excuse of a superintendent being allowed to retire? She should have been terminated months ago.

But no. The school board will give her hugs and kisses, issue a proclamation of her “Great Leadership”, and probably buy her a gold watch or two as she waddles off into the sunset.

Unbelievable.

another view

May 27th, 2011
3:42 pm

And Hall didn’t work diligently to advance the reputation of the district. She worked diligently to raise test PASS RATES (NOT SCORES), hoping in total naivete that the two were related. NOT so.

Frustrated Taxpayer

May 27th, 2011
3:53 pm

AJC dig deeper into the 12 years of achievement gains.
- Look at the amount scholarship dollars offered to athletes vs. non-athletes.
- Look at the amount spent on top-notch consultants hired to help mishandle this two-year debacle.
- Look at the amount of money that Gates has funneled into APS, and how those dollars are being misspent to this day. (He is the only person outside of Atlanta who should request a refund.)
- Look at the number of APS alums who graduated from colleges and universities within the past four years. While there have been steady improvements, how are these recent HS graduates are faring? They are the best measuring stick for Dr. Hall’s “nationally recognized best practices.”

LRAdams

May 27th, 2011
3:57 pm

Troubling and Alarming is an understatement. This is a disastrous tragedy. They have led children to believe they have done an expectable or even a good job educating themselves. They were allowed to believe they were prepared to go out into the world with a decent education. Some more than likely applied for the *Hope Scholarship Program. Others thinking they had completed school and could get a decent job and be responsible citizens only to fail.
Guess who they blame* themselves that*s who. Their self-esteem is destroyed and they take the responsibly for what APS had not done* properly educate them. This catastrophe is far more then Troubling and Alarming.
If there laws on the books for destroying children*s lives* these folks would serve prison time. I*m sorry Mom and Dad* I just don*t seem to be able to get a job.

News about Breaking News issue #1 | Conservative Homepage | Best Conservative News Sites

May 27th, 2011
4:02 pm

[...] the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) Presidents Council voted Thursday more… Breaking news: Dr. Hall farewell message: CRCT probe of APS will show … – Atlanta Journa… – blogs.ajc.com 05/27/2011 Breaking news: Dr. Hall farewell message: CRCT probe of APS will [...]

Dr. Craig Spinks/Augusta

May 27th, 2011
4:02 pm

Did Dr. Hall explain why her system provides Atlanta taxpayers no national comparison of student achievement at each APS elementary and middle school?

Did she explain why the failure rates among APS high schoolers on 8 of 10 EOCTs given during the 2009-10 school year ranged from 42% to 78%?

Doris M

May 27th, 2011
4:21 pm

When will the public see the results of the CRCT investigation? What will be alarming? Who will be named? All I know is that this cheating scandal happened on Beverly Hall’s watch and she should take responsibility. If she did not know what was going on, then she should have known. When will these criminals be prosecuted?

Angela

May 27th, 2011
4:42 pm

@Frustrated Taxpayer

What’s the harm done? Call 10 alums from various APS high schools and ask them how they fared during their freshman year at college. More than one student has told me APS failed to prepare them for the rigor of college courses. Ask how many held on to their HOPE scholarships. Ask how many see that money hanging by a thread as they overload on summer courses or work summer jobs to make up the difference.

******************************************************************************************************************
Please Please explain what you mean that APS failed to prepare students for the rigor of college?

Just for the record students must prepare themselves for school of any kind. Please do not blame teachers for these students failures. If they had prepared themselves for elementary, middle, high schools and college they would not be failing. This is also a parental issues not a teacher issue. Education, its value, the self involvement and eagerness to learn with and without teacher direction is on the parents and students. Teachers provide information and it is the students responsibility to use and indulge in the information.

We as a people are always finding ways to blame others for our lack of. These high school students had goals/visions of going to college what did they think college was all about. Most college students leave home and go to college with so little maturity to handle being on their own. Parents send their children off and preach to the choir but when they are on their own with no real adult guidance many do fail for many reasons. Each and everyone in this world is responsible for his or her own actions. What we must do in this country is to train our parents to be better parents and to make better efforts to educate themselves to better educate their own children.

Dr. John Trotter

May 27th, 2011
4:56 pm

Beverly Hall’s reign in Atlanta has been horrific. I was interviewed for a show being aired this Sunday at 10:30 AM on CBS/Channel 46. As you probably know, I did not hold back on what kind of corporate was established by the Beverly Hall Administration through the years.

Hall should have been gone years ago, and I commend the AJC and other media outlets for finally latching on to this story. Teachers and other APS employees have been suffering wiht muted voices for years and years. At MACE, we have constantly harped on the unsavory and unconscionable working conditions in Atlanta, and some perhaps thought that we sounded like a broken record.

Thanks, Maureen and others at the AJC for opening up this and other fora so that the employees of APS could speak, albeit most of the time anonymously.

A little preview about Sunday morning’s show on the Atlanta Public Schools >>>

http://georgiateachersspeakout.wordpress.com/

Real

May 27th, 2011
5:10 pm

@ Maureen, you are in cohoot with Hall’s administration, Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, Mayor Reed, and SACA. You have shown your TRUE suppport for the cheaters on this BLOG. How much did you get paid from money machine! You should be fired from AJC, you supported this cheating scandal. I don’t have any respect for you!

Real

May 27th, 2011
5:24 pm

@ Maureen, you had nerve to take ChillyWilly post down two days ago!

tim

May 27th, 2011
5:41 pm

B Hall makes my skin crawl……….

Defrocking Department

May 27th, 2011
6:28 pm

Will the real Bishop Eddie Long stand up and come out of the closet?

PleaseInvestigate

May 27th, 2011
6:47 pm

Maureen, would you please investigate why the board will allow Dr. Hall and her corrupt administration to terminate people and fill several principal positions before leaving the system. It is hard to understand how anyone would vote on anything that these people would recommend at this time. Who in their right mind would trust any decisions these people would make. They have bullied and treated people with such disregard. They do not use a fair process in hiring the best candidates. Yes, they will justify that the process is fair and involves teachers, parents, and community members. However, they stack the panel with people at the beginning to vote the candidates they want to advance.

Despite what some of you think, a lot of good hardworking and great educators are employed by APS. These educators invested in their profession to use for the benefit of helping to improve student achievement. People employed by APS should not be terminated by the Dishonest and Corrupt administration under Dr. Hall. What happened to the principal at Sylvan Middle School? After one year, they did not renew his contract. Was he that bad? If so, what about other people experiencing difficulties their first year under a non-supportive administration. If they like you, you can cheat, sexually harass your employees, abuse your employees mentally and emotionally, perform poorly and just show up. These folks do not care about what you know as long as you have an advocate in one of the Executive Directors, you are a shoe in. This is a time for the system to get a fresh start with good leadership.

How is it possible that those responsible for cheating received contracts to return back to APS? Dr. Augustine, Dr. Hall and the Executive Directors recommend non-renewal for people with fewer issues than some of those that received contracts (documented cheaters). Since Georgia is a right to work State, those implicated in the cheating should have a right not to return to APS.

I just don’t understand why someone is not asking the board to not approve any personnel changes until we have a new super…other than accepting the resignations of the Executive Directors.

Maureen, will you please investigate?

APS Board Members step up and just say NO! We will wait.

Cindy of Atl

May 27th, 2011
7:15 pm

Hall like most people of her kind pushed her own agenda for her own people. Are you really shocked at how it turned out?

Zero Tolerance

May 27th, 2011
8:27 pm

Hall and her lieutenants should all be arrested and thrown in jail. Anything less would be a miscarriage of justice.

Dekalb Oldtimer

May 27th, 2011
9:08 pm

YA KNOW!!!!! After spending decades in an attempt to educate our Ga. children, THIS I KNOW FOR SURE:
I have been trudging through colossal amounts of dirt among feral cats, watching the FAT CATS cover their poop! It must be genetic!!!

Wondering

May 27th, 2011
9:41 pm

Funny how the rest of the country recognizes this woman for her career in education. The NAP has shown remarkable progress has been made in Atlanta. Is there a still a long way to go? Yes. Hall says so herself. When she came to Atlanta, the general belief was that the students of Atlanta cound’t learn. She has proven that belief false.

Hall is as responsible for the CRCT cheating as a police chief is responsible for the cop that looks the other way. She has the responsibility to clean up the mess and hold people accountable but she isn’t criminally liable for their behavior. Our system of justice doesn’t work that way. I have had employees arrested for crimes on the job and the first time it was difficult to accept. I believe Dr. Hall has been in denial but that is not criminal.

Frustrated Taxpayer

May 27th, 2011
9:44 pm

@Angela: Based on the grammar and spelling issues in your comment, I can only hope you do not educate children at APS or any other district.

When I say students are not prepared for the rigor of college, I mean high schools teachers and administrators failed to set the bar high for our kids. They failed to provide honest assessments of their progress.

Instead, they pushed them out the door with false hope and scholarship offers but no real tools to compete.

Parents certainly have a job to do. But teachers and administrators are compensated WELL to get the job done. For 12 years, they chased their own rewards: APS bonuses and contract renewals built on lies.

Unacceptable. Yet the ringleader is riding into the sunset. Her video basically says, “So long, suckers.”

Is that explanation clear enough?

Wondering

May 27th, 2011
9:45 pm

Sorry, NAP should have been NAEP.

sick of mauron

May 27th, 2011
10:28 pm

Hey mauron, why haven’t you said the first word about the supreme court being accused of supporting a racist view towards public education? Is it because you support their view which means you have the same racist views?

it's about time

May 28th, 2011
12:06 am

One tyrannical super down in Atl and one more to go in Clayco…

Dr. John Trotter

May 28th, 2011
12:11 am

I left out the word “culture” in my 4:56 PM post. I meant “corporate culture.” Sorry.

Dr. John Trotter

May 28th, 2011
12:14 am

@ “it’s about time”: We have been sounding the same alarm about Edmond Heatley — even before the Clayton Board of Education voted on his contract. Check the record. Heatley too must go…sooner than later. I hope that it doesn’t take years…like it took for Beverly Hall. These “national” superintendents have hubris.

ARE YOU KIDDING

May 28th, 2011
12:23 am

@ James ….. You really don’t have a clue… Mays High probably annual has the highest
scholarship dollars in the state of Georgia. That is all home grown talent! My son received
over 7mil in scholarship…. Southwest Atlant Born and Breed.

it's about time

May 28th, 2011
12:29 am

@ Dr. Trotter. There is a temporary ruling regarding the money that contract employees are being required to give back. Maybe Dictator Heatley will begin to feel the pressure.

I support public education

May 28th, 2011
2:08 am

I find it interesting that all blame is being placed on Dr. Hall at this point. We have not read the final report and we don’t know all of the circumstances. All of my children are graduates of APS, but before Dr. Hall’s tenure. Now my grandson is going through the system. It is my opinion that too much emphasis is placed on THE TEST and it impacts the entire school year and how students are taught. They are taught the test and after the test is over, in March or April, that is essentially the end of the school year. Because so much emphasis is placed on THE TEST, the teachers are under a lot of pressure to make sure that their students do well. I personally feel that if students are taught a well rounded curriculum by proficient teachers who are interested in the students learning and doing well generally, the students will do well on the tests. They will know how to think logically, make deductions, rationalize and draw on information they have learned during the course of the school year. But that is not happening. Everything is centered on THE TEST. I am sure that Dr. Hall did not set up the system like that. She did not set the beginning and ending dates of the school year, I doubt that anyone would consent to having the teaching essentially stop after the tests have been administered. But that is what happens. The students are not challenged and they take the easy way out. So they graduate from high school not being able to write a business letter, essay, book report, research paper, do basic math or read. Somewhere something is missing. This is happening all over the country and not just in Atlanta. Atlanta is just a reflection of what is happening to students all over the country.
Governments balance their budgets on the back of education. They take physical education and the arts out of the curricula and expect to have well rounded students. They cut the amount spent on books and other media for the library. Yet, they don’t understand when the students can’t respond to simple multiple choice questions on subjects that the students should have been exposed to and assume that someone is not doing their job.. Parents are not doing their part at home and expect the teachers to pick up slack.
I think that before we start placing blame, we need to look at the whole public education picture.
Yes, all of this this cheating in the past two years happened on Dr. Hall’s watch and the buck stops with her. But, believe me, it didn’t begin under her watch and these past two years would have slipped by undetected if someone had not been very observant. So, lets look at the big picture and see what we can do to prevent this from happening again. Let’s do what is necessary to make sure that the students don’t get the short end of the deal. Let’s remove the pressure that the teachers have to work under and encourage them to teach a well rounded curriculum. Let someone help them with all of the paperwork they have to complete so they can spend more time with the students and have the administration be supportive of them, Let us make teachers and students want to come to school to learn and be taught..

David Sims

May 28th, 2011
5:27 am

According to what I’ve read in the AJC, the gains in graduation rates and on the NAEP by the Atlanta Public Schools came about mostly because APS dumped the bottom third of its enrollment by assigning the slowest 18000 students to intentionally discouraging “alternative schools” and then falsely recording them as transfers when they became frustrated and dropped out. If that’s so, then Beverly Hall’s attempt to credit herself with gains on the NAEP is deception.

I think she’s being allowed to slink away and go unpunished for her sins because she had become a big black hope to the political left in education, their icon for the success of social reforms in public schools. Sending her to prison would have been too discrediting to them, so they’ll just try to pack her off quietly and hope the memory of her fades from the public mind.

BillM

May 28th, 2011
7:30 am

Next time you get all excited about “cuts” to education, go check how much APS spends per pupil. With all the language about “cuts” it’s not amazing that the average voters does not realize the relative mountains of money that are spent in a system like APS.

Remember too that wihtout the criminal investigation launched by Perdue, Hall and her buddies would still be stonewalling this issue.

ART

May 28th, 2011
7:52 am

Wome now earn 55%of all college degrees / now own 52% of all jobs in America, complain because their wages are lower than men ? 4 million men lost jobs in this depression, our nation is crumbling and APS is perfect example of women running the show. This evil witch that manipulated the APS is an example that men are not the only cheaters in the world of high $ , politics and business..This disgraceful piece of lard managed to escape so far with no repercussions!!

Sad state of education

May 28th, 2011
7:53 am

Dr. Hall is to blame because she was informed by teachers that principals were cheating. She chose to look the other way. The last former principal of Oglethorpe and now the current principal of Benteen was notorious for compromising the fidelity of the test. Emails to Kathy Augustine, Don Doran, and Beverly Hall were ignored. A book about her integrity as a leader could be written. It is true that parents need to step up to the plate because they are the students’ first teacher,however that does not excuse the antics of the APS administrators.

justbrowsing

May 28th, 2011
8:00 am

I would think that she would allow the new superintendent to select the administrators for all vacant positions. That defeats the purpose if she does this before leaving them the opportunity to determine who is best for the job.

Johnny

May 28th, 2011
8:03 am

Lee… I am with you….why Dr. Hall has been allowed to stay is a mystery. At minimum, she allowed cheating to occur; she allowed a hostile environment to unmercifully punish those who sought to right the wrongs; she led the coverup; she allowed those who sought to undemine the state investigation to intimidate witnesses and flip off investigators. Any one of these justified her termination! And, she should return her national award received under false pretenses.

And BillM, you are so right. APS spends the most per student of any school system in the state — $14,000 per student! Second closest is 11,000 and change…throwing more money at the problem is not the answer. Finding dedicated teachers is.

Peace….

www.honeyfern.org

May 28th, 2011
8:17 am

I can’t believe the only thing happening to her is that she loses her job. This isn’t a farewell message; it is a “nanny-nanny, boo-boo,” can’t catch BHall, off she runs.

I think she should have been removed immediately and not allowed to make any other decisions in her capacity as superintendent. This calls into question every decision – hiring, fiscal, curricular, etc – that she has ever made, and I am so sorry for the students of APS who will continue to suffer, long after Hall is gone.

Not to ignite a chorus of boos, but BHall can take her test with her. It doesn’t shock me, when added to APS bonus structure, a.k.a. performance pay, that this happened, only that it took so long.

Write Your Board Members

May 28th, 2011
8:23 am

Wondering,

I wonder what percentage of NAEP improvement can be attributed to the shuttering of the projects in Atlanta and the shuffeling of those students off to Clayton and DeKalb. Given the decrease in poverty and the increase in non-minority students, I wonder if the the NAEP results in Atlanta are as meaningful as some would have us believe. While there is still significant poverty in ATL schools, I don’t think the kids are as poor as they were a decade ago.

Real winner of APS

May 28th, 2011
8:54 am

The Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA) should take any credit for the rise in APS test scores…Atlanta does not serve the same population it did ten years ago.
I work for APS and it has been hell working for people like Hall, Augustine, Cotman, Davis-Williams and the rest of the thugs. Great timing Dr. Hall…off you go and we are left to clean-up your mess…take all your awards and bonuses and go away, very far away and take the blind 4 board members with you.

Joyce

May 28th, 2011
9:04 am

Right on “justbrowsing”! I am so thankful the public is waking up to the politics of educaiton. No, and it is not about the kids. Hall will probably try to stack the deck with her administrative choices for all admiinistrative openings. In doing so, the same old things can go on in the APS. Why not just flush the toilet and make sure this does not happen again. Everybody thought appointing supereintendents would solve all the problems in educaiton but it has not. We need to go back to electing our superintendents at large and electing our school boards as we have been doing. Elect them all. . At least, their would be someone who has no intentions of stirring up trouble to the magnitude of APS. Also, you need to realize that the APS School Board is the escape goat in the situation. And, by deflecting everything towards the school board it took the attention off of Ms.Hall. This is what all superintendents try to do and they are successful at it. When in reality the school board does not know anymore than what the superintendnet wants them to know. Unless the parents and teachers calls the board members an enlightens them on what is taking place. Many times a superintendent will forbid teachers and staff from calling board members. Well, to all you superinendents, guess what, when I passed the Post Office this morning Old Glory was still flying high. And, under their rights as citizens they have the right to call anyone they want too, just make sure (teachers.and staff) you do it on your own time and dime. And, I think back to the APS Superintendent (Hall), you need to take responsibility and fire those who cheated; and if you were the leading factor you need to resign now without anymore pay. You see when you flush the toilet– it means to FLUSH IT and LEAVE NO RESIDUE. NO NOT EVEN A SMALL PARTICLE of SCUM. This message is to the board..JUST FLUSH the TOILET! There are many educators seeking jobs and you will not have a problem filling them.

Joyce

May 28th, 2011
9:15 am

You see she split the board. That is another trick superintendents do in order to make school boards look bad. Dr. Hall goodbye and please take AMTRACK with all your awards. You talk about the scholarships awarded to graduates. I am glad they recieved them but I do not think you had anything to do with it. So do not take the credit. In fact, It would be great to know how many in Ga. applied for this scholarhip you have referred, too.
It awful, when administrators try to take credit for the hard work that students have done to excell. It is the teacher who has helped the student not the administrators. So Dr. Hall you and all the other administrators need to find some other source to get your applause, such as lowering school taxes, lowering your salaries, cutting your staff instead of teachers. In fact, how much of your salary did you have cut during all the furlough days, lay-off and/or RIFs. I know the answer is zero (0). This is happening all over the state. Superintendents need to sacrafice along with the teachers/staff.

Madison

May 28th, 2011
9:36 am

It’s not my fault…and now it’s not my problem. A true leader takes credit for both the good and bad….this individual only wants credit for the good. A true sign of accomplishment would be leaving APS in a better position than when you took over……it’s not. All of the “accomplishments” during your watch should have a * by them….based on what we now know. Just in case your not aware….you are responsible for all of the teachers and administrative employees that were involved in the cheating but I forgot…. it’s not your fault ……and…. it’s now ……not your problem.

Nikole

May 28th, 2011
9:49 am

@ Wondering—Hall is surely to blame. I’ve heard and read stories about teachers that tried to alert the system of cheating in their buildings and they were harassed and ostracized. Additionally, Hall claimed to be all about data, but refused to look at her data through an objective lens. There is no way that certain elementary schools could have shown astronomical improvements in one or two years. It’s IMPOSSIBLE! But instead of looking further into those schools herself, she accepted what were clearly unreliable results, in an effort to make herself look good. She should have been fired long ago.

catlady

May 28th, 2011
10:00 am

I hope she can be sued, and prosecuted, for the money she took under false pretenses! Perhaps also a class-action suit on behalf of all APS students for the way they were defrauded.

Note to all school boards, state and federal government: When you have someone claiming unbelieveable gains, DON’T BELIEVE IT! DON’T BE A SUCKER!

Ajax

May 28th, 2011
10:10 am

All I have to say is, what kind of leader of any organization shouldn’t be held accountable for the failures of that organization? Even if she had no direct hand in it, the failure to recruit and retain competent teachers and failure to communicate to her staff that any manipulation of the testing process would not be tolerated, are her failures. But leave it to a government school leader to have any sense of accountability.

Ajax

May 28th, 2011
10:11 am

what I meant to say was ZERO sense of accountability.

curt

May 28th, 2011
10:33 am

Once again corruption and incompetence are dismissed with excuses and smokescreens. “The dog ate my homework” pattern used by Atlanta , Dekalb and Clayton so often of late. Hopefully some of these losers will face jail time and fines, not just a big bonus for leaving.

APS Employee

May 28th, 2011
10:33 am

Whenever you tried to question data or test results, you were labeled as an employee that “didn’t believe black children could learn” and “you had low expectations” then you would be placed on a Professional Development Plan, received a low evaluation, had your job threatened and was investigate by some made up charge by the Office of Internal Resolution Dept.
It was like trying to be an honest accountant working for Enron…Do you know that this Administration is actually planning a leadership retreat in 2 weeks for hundreds of APS administrators for 3 days at the Emory Conference Center—the final day is a big Faerwell Luncheon Tribute to Bev Hall—guess how much that will cost???? Is this Gates money, chambers $ or APS taxpayers???? SHAME

DD

May 28th, 2011
10:41 am

It’s “Detroit-Ja-Vu all over again” wake up Atlanta and the country this is where big goverment takes you!

APS Employee

May 28th, 2011
11:07 am

The 3 day APS administrators conference June 7, 8, 9) is called “APS – A Legacy Moving Forward”…Ha what a legacy
It’s time for all honest APS employees to stand up and be heard…soon without the fear of retaliation–we can not allow for this to happen again—we can not allow for these dishonest employees – Executive Directors and 12 principals who have been paid full time while sitting in some cubical downtown to return and corrupt our new superintendents admin
Someone needs to let Harsch-Kanaye know that the reason we are in this mess is because she and her four didn’t do their job and just followed Hall and the chamber blindly
Kudos to the 5 for exposing the truth
APS EMPLOYEES SPEAK OUT NOW–BE HEARD

GrannyCares

May 28th, 2011
11:37 am

Dr. Hall should be held accountable for lack of supervision, leadership and investigation when the first hints of cheating were surfaced. As a result of a total lack of leadership from her office, she has :
*Brought Distrust of the APS system, not only in the state of Georgia, but throughout the nation.
*Cheated kids from a basic education.
*No doubt turned business away from the Atlanta area. (Who wants to bring families into such a mess?).
*Had a direct negative impact on value of homes in Atlanta.
*Set a pathetic example of integrity, values and high character for kids — not only in APS, but the surrounding area.
* and CHEATED THE TAX PAYERS.

Hall, and her cheating compatriots should GO TO JAIL TO SET AN EXAMPLE that cheating and fraud will not be tolerated in Georgia.

Dr. John Trotter

May 28th, 2011
11:54 am

Beverly Hall’s little taped video takes the cake, eh? It’s a crock! She can put sugar and whipped cream on crap, but it’s still crap. Beverly Hall’s reign of terror in the Atlanta Public Schools will be looked upon as the Dark Ages. Clayton County has now entered the Dark Ages with Edmond Heatley. I have written fairly extensively on both of these superintendents.

http://georgiateachersspeakout.wordpress.com/

http://theteachersadvocate.com/

fred

May 28th, 2011
11:54 am

that’s what the school system gets for hiring a black woman.

bootney farnsworth

May 28th, 2011
11:58 am

Andre? come down from the ledge Andre.

bootney farnsworth

May 28th, 2011
12:00 pm

only thing suprising here is that she fessed up in any way at all.
even if it was to blame everyone but herself.

smarter crooks know to deny everything

catlady

May 28th, 2011
12:02 pm

No, fred, that’s what the system gets for hiring someone with claims too good to be true. No intelligence to examine the claims, or too lazy to—which one was it?

Unfortunately we have others in positions of power (in the state or nationally) with the same sorts of claims and they are promoted and put in charge of things and we are expected to swallow it hook, line, and sinker!

bootney farnsworth

May 28th, 2011
12:05 pm

as long as the Atlanta power structure is more concerned about promoting race over promoting achievement, same crap different day.

can a black person run APS with sincerity, intergrity, and a genuine
desire to see kids succeed? absolutely.

will Atlanta hire them? hell no.

bootney farnsworth

May 28th, 2011
12:08 pm

@ APS employee:
good idea to speak out – but suicidal in nature.

I’ve seen firsthand what happens when you try to speak
out. you’re labled a malcontent, a troublemaker. your
evalutations suddenly go in the toilet. colleagues keep
away for fear of being hit by the splatter.

crap assignments start flooding your way. the whisper campaign
kicks in. if you handle money, your every transcation becomes
scrutinized.

than they get nasty.

bootney farnsworth

May 28th, 2011
12:13 pm

imagine what we could achieve if Georgia cared 1/8th as much about
education as it does Bulldogs football.

Mr Charlie

May 28th, 2011
12:25 pm

First Clayton Schools, then Dekalb and Atlanta…Obviously the system is racist, cause it don’t make no sense for all these majority black educational systems to bees having problems.

catlady

May 28th, 2011
12:41 pm

Y,know, the alarming conclusion is really THIS: Teachers are constantly told to sacrifice “for the good of the students,” yet here it is, BOLDLY. She (and others) used the children, the sacrifices of the teachers, to enrich herself. For her own-self service and glorification, the perfidy was encouraged and covered up. That the board could never admit its mistake and fire the woman, when all the evidence was against her is part of the evilness of this. And that she would then face her accusers with the racism card, and, in the end, blame again the teachers instead of taking responsibility herself for the corruption she instigated (directly or indirectly) and refused to own up to when confronted multiple times.

The most alarming part of all is that the school board (and many others) will continue to follow “false gods” who promise the moon, and who will do anything to promote themselves at the expense of others.

Sk8ing Momma

May 28th, 2011
12:53 pm

Dr. Hall’s comment is despicable. What is *more* deplorable is that parents and voters appear to tolerate such incompetency in the City of Atlanta. IMO, the buck stops with parents when it comes to their children’s education and the representatives it chooses for their school board. In the end, parents will have to give an accounting for the quality of education their children did or did not receive. Parents: Rise up, get involved, be proactive, demand excellence and take responsibility for your school system.

jsmtih

May 28th, 2011
1:01 pm

what you have here is unqualified people running the city of atlanta hiring unqualified people to run the schools. all it would take is a person with half a brain to fix the city of atlanta and the school system. that will never happen because the people who elect the people that run the city of atlanta are the biggest idiots of them all, therefore they get what they deserve and everyone else associated with atlanta suffers

Bob in Alpharetta

May 28th, 2011
1:22 pm

Super Hall would like us to believe that she learned of results/findings during the past month? Nonsense. She orchestrated all from tops down – and will be swept up in charges / incriminations as underlings realize she has collected bonuses totalling hundreds of thousands annually, and is now hoping to hang those with erasers in their hands out-to-dry. She should forfeit all bonus monies for score growth achievement; be held fully accountable as CEC (chief executive cheat); and prepare now for her long overdue perp walk.

Hamlet

May 28th, 2011
2:16 pm

Who made the decision to hire this idiot? Those people need to be held accountable for the mess in which APS finds itself. This farewell address appears to be for no other purpose than to distance herself from the ten year train wreck that occurred under her watch, but her attempt to do that reflects as much incompetence as does her time at the helm of APS . Hopefully, the ongoing investigation will put her behind bars where she belongs.

Bino

May 28th, 2011
2:18 pm

from Scholastic.com (February 20, 2009)…..San Francisco, Calif. – Beverly Hall, superintendent of Atlanta, Ga., Public Schools since 1999, has been named the 2009 National Superintendent of the Year….”Beverly Hall is an outstanding superintendent whose leadership has turned Atlanta into a model of urban school reform,’ said AASA Executive Director Dan Domenech. “Throughout her long and successful tenure in Atlanta, Hall has accomplished significant gains in student achievement. She has demonstrated a commitment to setting high standards for students and school personnel, working collaboratively with the school board, and meeting the needs of the local community. AASA is proud to bestow this national honor on Hall.”…The national Superintendent of the Year finalists are measured against the following criteria:

Leadership for learning – creativity in successfully meeting the needs of students in his or her school system.
Communication – strength in both personal and organizational communication.
Professionalism – constant improvement of administrative knowledge and skills, while providing professional development opportunities and motivation to others on the education team.
Community involvement – active participation in local community activities and an understanding of regional, national and international issues……

Thank you Ms. Hall, Atlanta School Board and all those concerned business leaders, parents and citizens throughout Atlanta who have made the education of our children a top priority. How sad; how very, very sad!

WorkinOnTheChainGang

May 28th, 2011
2:26 pm

The fact that she is now doing interviews accompanied by a criminal defense attorney suggests that the focus has shifted to keeping her sorry fat ass out of prison.

The State and the Feds both probably have her in their crosshairs. The real question is whether any jury of Atlanta residents would ever convict her.

ted

May 28th, 2011
2:39 pm

APS slogan that should go on every HS dioploma they give to the sub par students they are churning out into our fine city: “Barbecue, watermelon, Cadillac car…we ain’t as dumb as you think we is!”

whatever

May 28th, 2011
2:40 pm

Arrest Dr. Hall now! Her Alma Mater should also rescind her doctorate degree.

Revolution is Brewing!!!!!

May 28th, 2011
2:48 pm

Nothing short of Jesus could bring APS into getting the help it needed. Its a mess. Dekalb is a joke, Atlanta is a joke. What happened is alot of black folk got to the top and said now that we have got our piece of the pie were gonna screw everybody below us and not only that continue to rank in the federal dollars unchecked. Guess what Beverly Hall should be waterboarded till hell freezes over because of how bad our Metro Atlanta education has fallen. Ten years to do the crime and 20 to do the time(Here is hoping)! I am wishing for child endagerment should be her charges! Same goes to anyone who is destroying future generations in the way of politics. String em up. Of course George Carlin had it right when he said Education will never get better!

MrLiberty

May 28th, 2011
2:59 pm

Alarming conclusions and still nobody will care and parents will continue to demand that the government raise them, educate them, and be responsible for them. Nearly no parents will pull their children from the government school system and even fewer will demand an end to government control of education. And nothing will change.

MM

May 28th, 2011
3:05 pm

@ former,

Your criticism of Maureen for her APS reporting on Hall is unfortunately true. She has consistently softened the needed punch as is the custom in a town afraid of power (after all, CAP and other civic orgs turned a blind eye or actively abetted the coverup). HOWEVER, in the reference frame that passes for honest reporting in Atlanta, she and the AJC did not do too badly on this one. Compared to the softball reporting I’ve witnessed in Atlanta for decades, this was comparatively courageous. After all, Maureen has to work in this town we we readers have gone back to fly-swatting or whatever else it is we do in our slack time.

Although my words are seemingly damning Maureen and the AJC with faint praise I am not (seriously). We, as readers, need to admit they moved the rock and took some chances doing so. Thanks!

Also, reading some of the other posts here it may be worth noting the final shoe has not fallen on the criminal side of this. Finally, APS should be on the hook to give back the fraudulently won grant monies to the Feds and even private grantors (Gates, etc.). Beverly, and anyone found guilty of perpetuating this scheme, should have their future wages garnished and bank accounts and other assets siezed just like Khadafy. Unlike my local mugger on the street, this whitecollar stuff is judged by a disserent set of rules.

Mr Charlie

May 28th, 2011
3:20 pm

I think this is what Cynthia Tucker means when she talks about the browning of America.

Uh-oh!

May 28th, 2011
3:54 pm

Georgia is such a joke. Glad I got the hell out.

Casandra Johnson

May 28th, 2011
4:44 pm

Where was Dr. Hall’s oversight during the cheating scandal? She was right there, leading and directing her employees. For this reason, she should accept full responsibility for what happened and be held accountable!

As a parent of a former APS student, I know all too well the tactics used by school district officials, including Dr. Hall and her direct reports, who intentionally set out to destroy the lives of the very students they were hired and entrusted to educate. This very same group tried to destroy my daughter last school year because we fought back and exposed wrong doing and the incompetence of officials at the highest levels of the school district who did not even understand their own policies and even violated federal laws. My parting words to Dr. Hall and her team was nothing good would happen for APS until they did right by the children that they have been entrusted to educate.

What we are now witnessing is the fall out of a regime that enforced tactics of fear, intimidation, and retaliation against any one who stood up to them and refused to go along with their wrong doing. For employees who went against the grain, it was their jobs that were at stake. For my daughter, it was the once in a lifetime opportunity to participate in her high school graduation, which was unjustly taken away from her just days before the ceremony and came after she had already received notification from school officials that she would graduate with distinct honors. To make matters worst, they turned around and withheld her cap and gown that we paid for and then turned around and gave it to another student without our prior consent, which is outright stealing! Even after this devastating ordeal, APS officials continued in a concerted effort to retaliate against us because we stood up to them. They did so by refusing to release key documents and information about rulings pertaining to my daughter, as well as her graduation credentials which she rightfully earned, even after Dr. Hall and her staff had been directed by officials from the Georgia State Department of Education to release my daughter‘s credentials. In turn, the delay resulted in my daughter losing a 4 year scholarship and she also was not able to attend the schools of her initial choice because she did not have her final transcript in time, however she had already met all of the prescribed requirements for graduation. In spite of it all, my daughter still persevered and went on to another college anyway which is in fact an excellent school. Strangely enough though, we have received several calls over the past eight months from APS officials asking whether my daughter was still enrolled in college, which lets me know that they have very low expectations for their students and thought that what happened would cause her to give up. The answer is YES my daughter is still in college, and what the devil meant for evil, God has turned it around for her good.

What’s interesting is from the time my daughter left the halls of Benjamin E. Mays High School in May 2010, she never had to complete another class, assignment or test, nor did she have to attend summer school, but she was still denied that which she was entitled to, which was the privilege of graduation with her peers on May 24, 2010. The final decision to allow y daughter to walk across the stage rested with Dr. Hall and every bit of information that she had available to her absolutely supported the fact that my daughter was in fact entitled to graduation and should have been allowed to do so. After a long, hard battle, which included going before the school board to make public that which school district officials tried to conceal, my daughter’s graduation credentials were finally released, however it was reduced to being mailed to us in an envelope several months after the fact with no form of apology from Dr Hall and her staff to accept responsibility for their actions, Instead, the once in a lifetime opportunity for my daughter to walk across the stage with her peers for graduation was stolen by Dr. Hall herself.

Dr. Hall, you and anyone who went along with your agenda should be ashamed of yourselves because it appears that it was never really about the children for you all It’s my opinion that every APS official who had any type of direct or indirect involvement in any type of wrong doing needs to be held accountable, including criminal prosecution, and also be banned from ever working for any other school district! What also disturbs me is when I contacted various Atlanta officials, including Mayor Reed and the media, to report what happened to my daughter and our findings of wrongdoing at the highest levels of the school district, hardly anyone in Atlanta wanted to get involved, but now it seems as if everyone is scurrying around and concerned about the students and the city’s image-give me a break! What we are now seeing is that which they have done to one, they have also done to many others. It’s just a mess and the tragedy of it is thousands of children, primarily African-American, are still being slaughtered in the city of Atlanta, but now it’s being done by the very people who have been entrusted to educate them.

Dr. John Trotter

May 28th, 2011
4:46 pm

@ Bino: I know what you mean. I read last night on the internet where former Chairperson of the Clayton County Board of Education, Ericka Davis, was singing the praises of Beverly Hall. Man, ole Hall had a lot of folks snookered — naive folk like Ericka Davis. From the Jump Street, I had her number, although I tried to be polite and even though I spoke to the Atlanta School Board on the first day that Hall arrived in the Summer of 1999. I started off: “Dr. Hall, Welcome to Bosnia. Welcome to North Korea. Welcome to North Korea.” I went on to say that although Atlanta was located in Georgia and that the laws of the States are made right up the street, Atlanta still thought that it was a kingdom unto itself. I urged her to be different. She was different O. K! She was worse than her predecessors!

The 1999 issue of The Teacher’s Advocate! magazine which contains the aforementioned article on its front page can be retrieved from the Archives section of the MACE website >>>

http://www.theteachersadvocate.com

I wasn’t wrong, was I? Ha!

Dekalbite

May 28th, 2011
4:47 pm

Didn’t Beverly Hall earn bonuses for raising test scores to meet AYP goals? Why is she not being asked to give back those thousand of dollars since the progress was not real but rather based on cheating?

chillywilly

May 28th, 2011
6:29 pm

The only video of Dr. Beverly Hall that I’m interested in watching is one where she’s wearing an orange jumpsuit and leg irons.

APS Parent #2

May 28th, 2011
6:56 pm

What Hall wants, Step Up group advocates for with very biased postings that well meaning but lazy parents (who themselves won’t come down to 130 Trinity) and judge for themselves. So like the IT reorganization that Hall and staff tried to push through with only a few weeks left in their contracts, expect Hall & company to rearrange more deck chairs on the APS Titanic before they leave.

If the 5 board members who have the sense on the board don’t blindly vote for whatever Hall & company wants, then expect more petitions from the Buckhead blondes who drive luxury vehicles and who didn’t care a whit about our schools south of I-20 until they realized no one would take them seriously if they didn’t have real black parents in their leadership of their Step Up group.

These parents only care about their husbands getting every last $ from the APS business machine before Hall leaves. They are all breathing a sigh of relief because they successfully bullied the board into a leadership change where one of their cronies businessman Reuben McDaniels can take up the baton that’s been on hold since Butler-Burks was voted out. From all outward appearances, they are working closely with the Mayor and the business community.

The cover-up works nicely when APS leadership has the help of the business community and a few very attractive and articulate parents….none of whom care for the poor, low achieving kids whose only hope up is public education.

I have to agree with the other posters Ms. Downey. You have somewhat dropped the hall for the majority of students, staff, teachers and parents in APS. Your columns have given space for free that should have required payment as an op ed advertisement. Now that Hall admits there is cheating, maybe you’ll try to stay out of ABE politics and focus on issues that are robbing kids of an education. Or if you get involved, please support those who are working for the kids first and foremost.

APS Parent #2

May 28th, 2011
7:18 pm

@CassandraJohnson, your story would sound fictional if it wasn’t about Hall.

You sound like a great parent to keep your daughter moving toward her dreams and future despite the antics of Hall.

I would wish you luck, but when you have talent like your daughter, then luck isn’t what got her where she is. How about congratulations!

Just an APS teacher

May 28th, 2011
8:39 pm

It is refreshing to know that Dr. Hall is leaving. This administrator is not worth any accolades she received. She should have investigated any jump in test scores in the beginning. I know a place in an APS high school where 100% of the students passed certain EOCT exams. 15% cannot read. So what do the test results prove? They can’t write and they can’t think. It is a shame what people are doing to our children.

Dr. Hall,
If our children were making so many improvements, they would graduate from college and technical schools and have better jobs, right? Where do you see that in Atlanta over the last 12 years? Where are the new young Black entrepreneurs with innovative ideas and creating jobs for others? Are APS graduates in “Teach for America?”. Those college grads don’t come from APS? Are they in medical school or do they mostly have low end jobs or no jobs? The Construction people are not Americans. Where are the majority of those so called “improved” students you graduated Dr. Hall? Unfortunately, their applications didn’t have standardized test questions so they filled them out with their bad grammar and writing that did not improve.

We are not educating our children. They want to be entertained. They won’t read anything and the administrators are super sorry. There are high schools where the students can’t read or calculate the tax on a purchase but they are graduating from APS. Go figure.

Dr. Hall’s administration is filling open positions with their cronies not the people who are qualified. What a mess! How can taxpayers stand for this mess?

APS Parent #2

May 28th, 2011
8:55 pm

@just, taking your discussion to the high school standardized testing should scare the bejesus out of even the white parents. SACS doesn’t accredit the elementary and middle schools where the CRCT cheating occurred, so this was not a SACS’ trigger – high school EOCT tests should be.

If Hall has been in place 12 years, then her cheaters have been there with these students every step of their way except kindergarten. They may think they know a thing or two, but who knows given the way tests are altered in APS. It will be a sad day for some of these students when they leave APS and find out how shoddy their education really is.

Parents who can find a way should hightail it to private school or a suburban district not under fire if there is one.

APS Parent #2

May 28th, 2011
8:57 pm

I forgot to add they should hightail it before the state adds EOCT to its list to investigate. SACS then will have a real reason to be meddling with APS and not this cranked up reason created by the business community to force a board leadership change and deflect negative press from Hall.

There are real reasons in APS that should cause APS to be on probation….if they were serious and unbiased about the work they claim to be doing.

Top School

May 28th, 2011
9:31 pm

I spent $150,000 challenging this criminal and her minions. 7 years in depositions and court issues only to see it dismissed with the help of Buckhead’s connected folk.

http://www.TopPublicSchoolCorruptionAtlanta.com

Every journalist and whistleblower reporter in Atlanta turned a blind eye to what I was saying since it involved Buckhead’s Top APS Elementary School.

Shame on the Atlanta’s most educated community allowing this corruption to be escorted so gracefully from the public schools they fund with their tax money.

What example have you set for your children? Lie, Cheat, and fill your pockets full as you bow out with a smile on your face…Shame Shame Shame on those that have allowed this corruption to take this long without consequences…Shame on those knowing the politics involved.

No teacher should ever be subjected to the retaliation I endured as a result of the internal secrets of corrupt APS leadership.

Disgraceful…and it continues every time the AJC allows these criminals to have a headline in the news to attempt to cover-up all the mess.

Dig deeper …this is just the surface…

Shame on ALL THOSE INVOLVED.

Dr. John Trotter

May 28th, 2011
9:43 pm

More on the three biggest educational hypocrites in Georgia, Atlanta’s Beverly Hall, DeKalb’s Crawford Lewis, and SACS’s Mark Elgart…

http://georgiateachersspeakout.wordpress.com/

Two down and one to go. I have been calling these three phonies “Georgia’s three biggest educational hypocrites” for years and while Lewis, Hall, and Elgart were safely ensconced in their positions. I was right again, right?! Ha! The ole Southside Svenghali knows a bit or two about what goes on in the public schooling process. I sort of miss the days when the AJC Editorial Board used to call me a Dime Store Demagogue, a Svenghali, and everything else but a white boy. A columnist in the Clayton News/Daily even said that I had “hypnotic powers.” Ha! Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Boo!

Top School

May 28th, 2011
9:44 pm

I support public education

May 28th, 2011
2:08 am

What you’ve said does not excuse what happened…

Holding leaders accountable for honest, integrity and ethics is not asking too much.
Turning a blind eye and blaming it on the excuse that everything and everyone else is corrupt…does not explain why HALL has been allowed to finish her contract…get paid…and given the stage to make an exit speech.

And a retirement party…too???
What a class-less act…and the Buckhead Business Community has joined the cesspool.

Casandra Johnson

May 28th, 2011
10:22 pm

@APS Parent #2 – Thanks and it was certainly our faith in the One, True and Living God that kept us and gave us the strength to keep going! God help Dr. Hall’s soul and everyone that willfully participated in her agenda.

Awaiting moderation

May 28th, 2011
11:24 pm

@Top School—not only has she been allowed to finish her contract, Hall, Augustine,Pitts Cotman, Davis-Williams, etc have continued to receive bonus pay while all other APS employees have been on a salary freeze and lost paid work days for the last few years. Bonus money off the backs of our students that was collected as a result of tampered test scores.
Did you hear anything returning this unearned money? New Superintendent CLEAN HOUSE

The Parent Advocate

May 29th, 2011
10:56 am

The disdain that we should feel for the continuous failure of the Atlanta Public Schools System is criminal. As a parent in APS, I struggle everyday with the low aim that APS has amidst the focus on the testing, I directly blame the leadership for not setting a tone of excellence in APS. Starting from the Board, and of course the entire senior cabinet lead by the notorious Beverly Hall and Kathy Augustine they are the mafiosa the grand dames of APS and what they say goes. Having high stakes tests are certainly factors in the pressure, however when we compare schools in APS, north to south, you will see a lot of emphasis on many achievements, the test being just one. The day before the CRCT test this year my daughter who attends a midtown school was doing projects and preparing to dissect, my son who attends a school south of downtown was being constantly drilled on CRCT, being taken out of connections classes, literally shutting down the entire school except for CRCT prep; And immediately after the test that same daughter continued work, projects and homework up until the end of school, my son’s school on the other hand played games, watched movies and had no homework from that time until the end of school. Tell me that is not criminal and these are the same schools who were on the serious list for cheating. Give me a break! Those nearly 6,000 children who were given 12-weeks to help them overcome what could be years of deficiencies was a joke. and the children in NW and SW Atlanta are the ones being laughed at as the mayor, the business community and in many instances the faith-community have turned their backs on these children by using bully and smoke screen tactics to distract. Is the mayor in it with those who benefit from prison labor? Has the mayor sold his soul for the lives of 1000’s of children in APS? We have to ask ourselves 5 people on the Board FINALLY had the courage to stand up for what was right, where would could have gotten rid of Dr. Hall sooner and less expensive. Those five people could not stand up to the resources, money and influences others had. What a shame on Atlanta that we did not support the efforts of a few to stand up. We should be ashamed of ourselves to blog about these issues, when only a few of us stood up for the children, the Board’s so-called “gang of five” and against those who did not want to see justice at their expense done. I feel sorry for the future of these children, and I feel sorry for the amount of apathy we have out here!

cheating

May 29th, 2011
10:58 am

hall knew nothing, nothing at all about any cheating, at any time. and she means it!

Dr. John Trotter

May 29th, 2011
11:43 am

Beverly Hall…one of the three biggest Educational Hypocrites in Georgia >>>

http://georgiateachersspeakout.wordpress.com/

Mr Charlie

May 29th, 2011
12:11 pm

John Trotter, you are an effect of the incompetence of the black school system establishment. You are like barnacles to a ship, like mold to dampness. You are no visionary, or Svengali, you are a roach in a dirty kitchen.

failure

May 29th, 2011
12:38 pm

aps—rotten to the core from the top down. These “administrators” should be in jail for fraud and negligence, but due to their power in the establishment, they keep their high paying jobs and obscene pensions, while the schools stay bad. congrats!

APS Parent #2

May 29th, 2011
1:04 pm

@cheating. Hall is the CEO; she was paid big bucks to do that job; she put the structure and key leadership in place; she won awards and was happy to take ALL of the acclaim including any monetary awards when we all thought the APS data was accurate.

The buck stops at the top and that is with Hall. If she didn’t know anything about the cheating then she must have checked out of her job long ago. Doesn’t matter though. This occurred on her watch and under LaChandra Butler-Burks & Cecelia Harsh-Kinnane’s leadership. They bear the blame and shame for robbing the children of APS of their futures. The truth started coming out under the leadership posted by the 5 and El.

@sandra points out that there is one true God. She is right. Any who have helped cheat, cover up the cheating, or redefined a new issue (board leadership) in order to deflect public attention for this crime going on downtown near our state capitol and the birthplace of our Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr will have to stand judgement before Him one day. God will know who did right by ALL the children and not just the few. Hopefully before then, the state will sit in judgement here on earth for these crimes.

May God’s mercy and grace be with the students, staff, teachers, parents and “the 5″ board members who have tried to work for the children despite the concerted efforts of the Atlanta Education Fund, the Blue Ribbon Commission, the business community, the StepUp gang from the Northside who said cheating wasn’t an issue (sure they will now make it their issue now so they can define it for all of Atlanta to help the business cimmunity and the lackey Dr Hall out).

History will show the truth. Ms. Downey, where will your columns and focus show God your heart has been? You have many followers. Why not direct them to the path of truth and light?

HLS

May 29th, 2011
1:14 pm

THE biggest hypocrite in Georgia is John Trotter – he portents to be all about – the kids and education – he is only about those in MACE and his own pockets and ego. Hindsight is 20/20 and anyone can be a Monday morning quarterback with the B. Hall situation.

The group in Clayton has regained accredited schools – no thanks to MACE and J. Trotter – who all but drove the truck straight to the loss of accreditation- but it is regained thru a lot of hard work by Superintendent Edmond Heatley and his administrators – the entire 9 member BOE – the parents and citizens of Clayton County. The people who work toward the building up of our students and our region, not the destructive practices of the self-proclaimed expert that keeps rearing his snake eyes from beneath the proverbial rock, to make comments on his self-perceived accomplishments and his miraculous talent of clairvoyance.

To bad – there are some teachers that do not understand economics – with the change and influx of the past 15 years – the resulting depreciation of homes – compounded by the recession of the past 3 years, has not left the school system with the money it had even 5 years ago. These are the ones who seek refuge with the great charlatan.

Goodbye teaching

May 29th, 2011
1:22 pm

Do not give any credit to Heatley. He is no leader, and his days are numbered.

8040two

May 29th, 2011
1:39 pm

Former Governor Lester Maddox once said: ” We are not going to get better prisons, until we get a better class of prisoners.” The same can be said about inner city schools all over the US. Blacks in this country need to start making progress, and not excuses. Noblesse oblige, the white man’s burden.

jimmie

May 29th, 2011
1:41 pm

here here 8040

Clancy

May 29th, 2011
1:51 pm

So, let me get this straight: From Saturday’s AJC front page quote from Ms. Hall:
“Staff chose to violate the trust…in them to help pupils pass CRCT.”

She and staff believed that by cheating on behalf of students the students were passing the CRCT?

She claims to have a Ph D? From where? Cracker Jack U?

How could any alleged educated person believe that?

These kids get through the 12 years of “education”, yet they can not read well; they can not speak proper English; they can not do simple math in their head, nor on paper; they can not write a simple paper on a common subject, and more?

Oh but, they CAN do computer games!

What APS has produced is a whole sub-culture of victims of a school systems run by incompetents.

The high schools produce kids who somehow get into college and have to go through a year or more of “remedial classes”.

Hall and her staff believe this is education?

God help our society.

Gail Churchill

May 29th, 2011
2:06 pm

How ironic that articles about cheating in public schools and the recent immigration bill appeared on the front page of the Saturday paper.

What is truth?

Now even Beverly Hall admits the truth.

Joanna M. Adams wrote the truth about the immigration bill in the Pro & Con column of the AJC earlier in May. I suspect Governor Deal will discover that the immigration bill was a mistake. He and all lawmakers should recognize this truth and repeal it when the General Assembly meets in August. I have contacted my representative and urge you to do the same.

Atlanta Education, Politics and Business

May 29th, 2011
2:46 pm

APS has done just what the business community needed in two nice steps:

Step #1: Provided several million dollars worth of contracts to the business community under the auspicies of education. Their real focus is about getting the contracts (no different than the airport contracts or any other government contract). If education happens in the process – great!! If not, then the business community has a pr engine that can snap into place and put a spin on the news so that it has a different focus.

Step #2: Provided the city of Atlanta with an underclass of citizens who do not have the educational skills to make it through college and/or find gainful employment that will allow a family to survive on without government assistance. Those among this group who would have been gainfully employed business entrepreneurs if they had been fully educated by APS, turn their natural talents and skills to street crimes (drugs, child-trafficking, prostitution, robbery, etc.) where they earn lots of untaxable income. The greater number among this group who do not have this type of talent end up in prison thus allowing the business community to make money on a new set of government contracts – the contracts to build and supply the prisons.

Public education should be about education. It isn’t. It is about government contracts.

Regular citizens asleep at the switch can’t complain on down the road about the quality of life in Atlanta because they missed the boat on the true nature of the quality of public education afforded to the students in the metro area.

Dr. Hall brought her New Jersey machine to Atlanta and reminded the deep south of what the carpetbaggers did to our city after the Civil War. If something seems too good to be true.

PS – Dr. Hall’s still trying to take credit for gains over her tenure. If the data is suspect, she’s left no credible way to measure anything, particularly academic progress.

KiaraB

May 29th, 2011
3:05 pm

Hi HLS, I certainly respect your opinion on CCPS. But… please note that the fact that CCPS (we) gained accreditation has little to do with Superintendent Dr. Edmond Heatley as this was a work in progress before he took reign. Honestly, Ed is not very BRIGHT at all. The fact that we gained accreditation rests on the back on the people who are on the front lines every day….teachers, administrators, students, and the community. The fact that we got accreditation is no surprise to any of us as Brock’s law firm represents CCPS. Remember, Brock was a part of the decision to initially strip accreditation from CCPS.

In addition, I think that teachers understand economics quite well as they know that Dr. Heatley recently accepted a $30,000 bonus and is set to received additional bonus soon while cutting into their pockets and stuffing his own.

Maybe you should talk with Dr. Heatley or maybe you are Dr. Heatley….or one of his cronies… How little of him…really how “little” of him as he is anti-teacher as one can get…If he had the best interest of the school system at heart, he would have never taken this money…And if a survey was rendered to teachers in the county, I can assure you that at least 90% want him GONE! I pray that the federal judge side with teachers next week and send a clear message to Dr. Heatley and that he never gets another chance to ruin another school system. HEATLEY MUST GO!!!. HEATLEY MUST GO!!!. HEATLEY MUST GO!!!.

lisa1211

May 29th, 2011
3:23 pm

Hi Jimmie, I agree with you and I am a black woman who works in CCPS. At least when Dan Colwell was CCPS’s superintendent, he knew how to treat employees and there was a surplus of money. When black folks (superintendents) took over, all the money evaporated and it has been a complete nightmare. I am not saying that Dan Colwell did not have his flaws as we all do…but they certainly do not compare to the idiots we have had after him, including Dr. Edmond Heatley who is clearly suffering from the “Napoleon Syndrome” as evident by the high heel boots he often wears. I also agree with Trotter (which I never do) as Dr. Heatley should not have been hired as he is in over his head.

Dr. Sam King is truly the ONE last hope and this brother is truly phenomenal… and is by far…THE EXCEPTION… And if he had been superintendent of CCPS, we would have a much different story.

Atlanta Education, Politics and Business

May 29th, 2011
4:16 pm

Interesting last comments.

Perhaps if the systems took more input from below the top tier public school leadership (out in the field versus in the district office), maybe the public would have a truer and more accurate picture of the health of their public school system.

You’ll need to allow them to speak in private because all of these systems seem to have a well-oiled method in place to silence the whistleblowers despite claims to the contrary.

APS Parent #2

May 29th, 2011
5:38 pm

Wonder if there is any relation between the timing of Dr. Hall’s farewell message with news of “alarming outcomes” and the force-out of El from ABE leadership role?

The state report was supposed to be done back in March. I heard from a friend at the capitol that they were going to delay release until after Dr. Hall left because the Atlanta business community had requested it. (Who contributes the most to politcal compaigns? Big business – made sense to me.)

Now that big business has successfully confused the issues and played Big Bully, the board will change leadership again. Perhaps, this leadership isn’t their dream team, but at least it includes one of their slicker and more articulate team members, Reuben McDaniels. Isn’t he also a board member of the Atlanta Education Fund?

Skull and crossbones – Atlanta has it’s own version. They eat dinner at the Piedmont Driving Club and the Capitol City Club and Jack & Jill alumni are there to do their dirty work.

tim

May 29th, 2011
6:47 pm

Bye Bye Bev Cupcake….d please take Maureen with you!

Chris Murphy, Atlanta, GA

May 29th, 2011
7:52 pm

To any of you that think “the 5″ are some kind of positive force: just what have they ever- EVER- done, individually or collectively to advance education in APS? When have any of them EVER fulfilled their main elected duty- to oversee the administration of APS? “The (other) 4″ were, and are, similarly useless, but “the 5″ only raised their voices when they realized that the whitewash investigation (i.e., the “Blue Ribbon” panel) was about to get tsunamiied by the state. Still- did they question Hall, her methods, her figures, her personnel? NEVER have they raised ANY objection to what Hall and her administration has done; indeed, they still claim that “significant” progress has been made in the last 12 years. Well, here’s a fact: before Hall came, 45% of APS students graduated HS; now, 42% do (and that is the number of graduates in a class/the number in the class as freshmen, a truer measure than Hall uses). Where’s the progress? Indeed, where’s the oversight? What, none of them can do as I did and use the state figures to dispute Hall’s BS??

Chris Murphy, Atlanta, GA

May 29th, 2011
8:02 pm

The AJC is to be applauded for the role it has played. This paper is the one that brought to light the two (2) E-Rate scandals, the phony graduation numbers, the “lost” students, the CRCT cheating, not employees, not parents nor citizens. The AJC took that on while being called racist, while being called a tool of the Chamber of Commerce, while losing revenue in the internet age- it brought its resources to bear. Maureen has a fine blog here; many details that don’t fit into an investigative story has come out here, through her or sources that will post here. I know I’ve learned a lot as a citizen and a parent, and am grateful for this space. If Maureen can be faulted a la Hall, it is that she has given the superintendent every benefit of the doubt; many of us have either been quick to be cynical, or similarly defensively supportive of APS and its personalities. Regardless, Maureen has been part of the team that has kept the problems alive in discourse, and for that she has my thanks, no matter her personal or professional opinion of Hall and APS.

justbrowsing

May 29th, 2011
8:41 pm

Well said Chris and I echo your sentiments!!!

Dr. John Trotter

May 29th, 2011
8:43 pm

Well, the Southside Svenghali has returned…yes, the Clayton Rasputin that predicted that Edmond Heatley would be a disaster. Ha! I was right again, right? Right? Just like I was on Barbara Pulliam. Yep, the ole Clayco school board is too stubborn to admit its grave error in judgment and to get rid of the clown, Edmond Heatley. I didn’t have him on my original Educational Hypocrites list for Georgia…because he was apparently messing up Chino Valley, California at the time. And, how can we call him a “hypocrite”? No one is buying his crap. Now for a long time, people were buying Crawford Lewis’s crap, Beverly Hall’s crap, and Mark Elgart’s crap. All three were and are selling educational crap. Two down, one to go. Ha!

Oh, my good friend, HLS (does this stand for “Heatley Loves Suckas”?), jealousy is indeed a powerful emotion. I have warned you about this jealousy and bitterness, didn’t I? Oh yes, I was right on Crawford Lewis and Beverly Hall too, right? I yelled from the metaphorical mountaintop for years that they were educational snake oil sales folk. So is Arne Duncan, Michelle Rhee, and Mark Elgart. Don’t you hate it when I am always right? Ha!

KiaraB, you are right. SACS accreditation was a done deal. In my opinion, the whole game with accreditation is about control, who is going to get the school board attorney contract, sell insurance to the teachers and so forth. It’s about money. Clayton County was and still is in about the same shape as other urban school systems throughout the South…where SACS operates. It was simply about control. Brock apparently got mad as hell when the school board inexplicably hired the John Thompson fellow. I think that Brock felt that his plate would be taken away. He proceeded to go forth and trash his [former] client, the Clayton County Board of Education, all in the media. Hmm. I don’t think that lawyers are able to do this. If a lawyer was defending a man charged with murder, and the lawyer is no longer the accused murderer’s lawyer, can the lawyer then get on TV and trash the former client, saying, “He should fry!”? I don’t think so. I have a major article on Glenn Brock and his law firm coming out soon. You don’t want to miss it! And, HLS (Heatley Loves Suckas?), I think that I’m right on him too. Ha!

http://georgiateachersspeakout.wordpress.com/

justbrowsing

May 29th, 2011
8:53 pm

Many use that position for status reasons- very little business as it relates to children is addressed – seems the APS board took a business as usual, don’t rock the boat approach. That attitude and those politics stymie any real progress the school district could have made. If only someone on the board would have been either intelligent enough, or, bold enough (or both) to bring these issues out in the open years before…..

James

May 29th, 2011
9:18 pm

I love Atlanta Public Schools the school system will bounce back I know it will.

Nupeman

May 29th, 2011
9:35 pm

Pssssssssst Trotter, Sam King is a Kappa too….

MiltonMan

May 29th, 2011
9:45 pm

Great the APS will only replace one idiot with another.

Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil

May 29th, 2011
9:59 pm

Hall ends the video farewell by saying she cherished her time in Atlanta and will hold the staff and students in her heart.

What she forgot to mention was: SHE WILL ALSO HOLD MILLIONS OF FEDERAL DOLLARS IN HER POCKET!

JANICE MOORE

May 29th, 2011
10:02 pm

DR. BEVERLY HALL IS A TOTAL FAILURE. I seriously hope that the GBI holds her accountable for all of this. She thinks she is so smart by saying this on the last day of actual school. She should not be allowed to retire or resign without paying for her crimes. As the saying goes……THE BUCK STOPS HERE.

She should be ashamed of herself, but knowing her she is laughing about it—–or letting her female friends pat her on her back for getting over. She needs to take ALL of those she has put in place on the last year.

APS has never been in the mess they are now and we have Dr. Beverly Hall to thank for them.

Unfortunately, APS will be paying for her crimes for many years to come and that in itself is a total shame.

Dr. John Trotter

May 29th, 2011
10:18 pm

Hey Nupeman: I told you that I have nothing against Kappa…just don’t like Heatley promoting an inordinate number of Kappas and Calipeeps. No one likes this. Not fair to the non-Kappas and folks from other states. The Qs, Alphas, et al., deserve equal consideration. So do the KAs for that matter! Ha! The same goes for the soros. And the states? Just because California is in a heck of a financial pickle, this is not reason for Edmond Heatley to open an employment agency for the folks from Cali. Give an equitable shot to the educators who grew up in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. The Kappafornia crap needs to stop.

@ Nupeman: I am glad that Dr. Sam King is a Kappa. This doesn’t surprise me at all. Not one bit. Many great Kappas…Johnny Cochran, Horace Mann Bond (Julian’s pop), Sad Sam Jones and Bill Russell of the earlier day Celtics whom I adored (won it all in 1969 when only finished 4th in the Division…Sad Sam Jones’s last season), Gayle Sayers, and even ole Vernon over in DeKalb. Oh, don’t let me forget the Big O! Oscar Robertson, if you are too young to remember. Ha! I told you that I marched with the Nupes in the First Annual King Parade on Peachtree Street. One of my favorite students of all time was President of the Emory Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi, and he invited me.

So, next time I see Sam, I will form the old thumb and index finger together and give him the Nupe sign! (I won’t tell him that Dr. Moses Norman used to give me VIP Cards to the Omega House.)

TopSchool

May 30th, 2011
12:04 am

Atlanta Education, Politics and Business …You’ve summed it up…4 simple words….and we know they are not held accountable for any illegal activity in these elite circles. They are all scratching each others’ backs with a dull butter knife.

http://www.TopPublicSchoolCorruptionAtlanta.com

TopSchool

May 30th, 2011
12:28 am

Rewind to this and read again…

http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2010/12/19/did-aps-officials-suppress-probe-into-crct-cheating/?cp=3

And these folks will not be held accountable???
Professional Standards Commission should be totally dismantled…
Think of all the money that could be used constructively for children while JOHN GRANT and WARREN FORTSON use the taxpayer’s money to make a mockery out of PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS that are selectively applied to ONLY SOME FOLK….

The public needs to demand criminal charges against these APS corrupt leaders.

TopSchool

May 30th, 2011
12:33 am

While the AJC brought this to the forefront …How do these reporters feel watching nothing happen to those corrupt individuals they’ve attempted to disclose?

I know what it feels like…What a waste of time…Walking out of the federal courthouse and knowing this process is completely BS. Buckhead Sh_t. They will not be held accountable for anything they do.

QE3

May 30th, 2011
12:47 am

Dedicated to Bev….one for the road!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uajchd0FEA
BTW, when will the Feds freeze her Swiss/ Caribbean accounts?
The accomplishments were false, so the rewards were not earned.

Steve From Tucker

May 30th, 2011
7:13 am

Got to wonder why she is not in jail. She set back the City of Atlanta by 10 years. Those kids had no chance. Maybe with her gone, they will.

TopSchool

May 30th, 2011
9:32 pm

Those protecting Hall sit in some of the largest mansions in Buckhead…they are protecting her so the Buckhead Business beat can go on as usual.

They will not ask her to return any money…she knows too much.

a wink…and a nod…and soon all of this will be over…and they will start all over, too.

This was just issues on test scores…what do you think is missing from the education pot of gold?

http://www.TopPublicSchoolCorruptionAtlanta.com

another aps teacher

May 30th, 2011
10:30 pm

This is one APS teacher who will neither be alarmed nor alarmed. I told people YEARS ago that the elementary schools were cheating for the students. I openly shared my disgust that one needs only to get 50% of the answers correct on the CRCT to pass. I told people that these babies come to us in middle school not knowing how to add, subtract, multiply, divide, read, write, or spell I also told people (whoever would listen) that the hoops Beverly Hall made teachers and administrators leap through were ineffectual (at best). Twelve years of smoke,mirrors, and whitewash.

Don’t get me wrong, APS does have some marvelous programs in place for portions of the population. But for th students who are most at risk? The teachers who get real authentic positive results are old school teachers who close their doors and actually teach the children the way we were taught back in the day. We do that for the children, because those of us who have gotten caught have faced censure for “not differentiating, not using graphic organizers, not using technology in our instruction…” and not going with the latest fad. Good riddance Beverly Hall. I hope they make you pay back all that money you stole from the tax payers.

another aps teacher

May 30th, 2011
10:35 pm

I meant neither troubled nor alarmed. Posting before editing will make one look foolish every day. Sorry.

@top school and others

May 31st, 2011
10:01 pm

I have to say, Top School, you have been thoroughly wronged by the APS system. You have spent so much of your hard earned money with no reprieve in sight. I too have been wronged by APS and have sent all documentation to Professional Standards to confirm criminal activity regarding falsification of a document. I had been awaiting a response for months regarding a complaint about a falsified Annual Review Summary. I asked if they could retrieve my original signed document. Their response was that the complaint was expunged. Well where is the original signed document?

The people are under the impression that Clayton, APS, and Dekalb are the only poorly run systems. Well Rockdale County that is headed by Sam King has its challenges too. There is extreme nepotism in personnel and positions are posted but given to friends, families, or sorors/frats. Metro Georgia is a horrible place to teach. I have heard it from all over. They all are in cahoots and play the same unethical games.
Little is being said about nonrenewed teachers, but I will bet that most of those not hired by other sytems are African American certified teachers.
To the racist posters: Black and White teachers are oppressed in these systems; it has nothing to do with race. It has everything to do with greed.APS has friends in the Superior Court systems, with other legal systems, in the medical fields, with spineless teachers,with the elite business community,with Professional Standards, and with the “stepandfetchit” Mayor Kasim Reed(what a huge disappointment he is.)

I hope that the GBI’s alarming report will expose the teachers who have been wrongly terminated. I hope that they will invite the feds to do the real investigating. I hope that there will finally be retribution for Top School and that whatever he has spent will be returned to him one hundred fold plus pain and suffering. I also hope that the spineless teachers will unite with the vocal ones in unity because no one is exempt from the wrath of administration.

HLS

May 31st, 2011
10:50 pm

John – Just saying it does not make it so – but you have had a lot of practice at making lies sound good to those who are gullible. Thompson did hire a bunch of his old cronies. This superintendent, Heatley has not. Your info is bogus. Very few people have been hired in from outside our system. Again – you have been caught stretching the truth. It is also funny, you do not mind name-dropping. Makes you feel more important , does it.

Kiara – I do know Heatley – have talked to him numerous times – discussed many matters involving the school system. Either you have not been around to see the whole accreditation trip we have been on – or you are a self-righteous teacher. The loss of accreditation had nothing to do with the teachers – they were educatikng the students before and during the crisis – it was all about the administration of the school system- the old Trotter led or influenced BOEs with their infighting and micro-managing and absolute disrespect and disdain to those who are tasked with trying to keep our schools traveling in the right direction. The teachers of the system have been there – doing the job of education the kids. The change that help get accreditation back was the change in superintendent – to a hard worker – not a peacock or a Board puppet, or cheating principal. And a BOE, who even with their differences, have worked together to get work done – and to make hard decisions. Actually – I think if the teachers really look at the condition and the financial situation of our county and how the tax base has been decimated – these educated people would stop there bellowing. And if a survey were done with the parents of this county, The vast majority will be in favor of this group and what they have accomplished with the school accreditation. Frankly i would rather stand with those citizen than the teachers and their unions.

You should talk to members of the citizen budget committee – these people will tell you – teachers have contracts – the superintendent has a contract. They will also tell you that the supposed 30k is a fallacy.

Top School

June 1st, 2011
7:10 pm

My case is over…
The safety nets in Professional Standards are designed to protect the Administration and the Buckhead Buddy system.

Until the parental public says enough…(and that would need to be the folks on the southside of Atlanta…) the northside corrupt beat will continue without skipping a beat.

Ole Guy

June 1st, 2011
8:23 pm

Ah…some more glowing stats to illustrate the “successes” of another “Custer Command”.

Breaking news: Dr. Hall farewell message: CRCT probe of APS will show “alarming conclusions”

145 comments Add your comment

About Get Schooled

Search this blog

Recent Posts

Archives

More from the AJC

Are You or Your School the ‘Best In Class’?

Categories

College resources

All AJC blogs »

Tell us what you think about the site

Subscribe »

Customer Care »

AJC Services

Sections

Other Editions

Guides

Affiliates

Advertising

AJC Sites

Special Reports

Blogs

Opinion

Blogs

Topics

Features

Blogs

Topics

Features

Topics

Features

Features

Blogs

Topics

Features

Breaking news: Dr. Hall farewell message: CRCT probe of APS will show “alarming conclusions”

145 comments Add your comment

About Get Schooled

Search this blog

Recent Posts

Archives

More from the AJC

Are You or Your School the ‘Best In Class’?

Categories

College resources

All AJC blogs »

Tell us what you think about the site

Subscribe »

Customer Care »

AJC Services

Sections

Other Editions

Guides

Affiliates

Advertising

AJC Sites