No family, but a few friends in high places in DeKalb
An AJC story this morning talks about the new DeKalb school chief’s hiring of three former colleagues at six-figure salaries. Each is a top-level player in the transformation that Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson intends for DeKalb and each is being paid $159,800.
According to the story: Atkinson’s point person for instruction is Kathleen Howe, a former colleague of hers as a deputy superintendent in Kansas City, a district of 17,400 students and 2,300 teachers and other employees. Kendra March is DeKalb’s new deputy superintendent for school leadership and operational support. March worked with Atkinson in Charlotte at a district of 125,000 students. Gary Brantley, the chief information officer, will be in charge of all computers and technical equipment, such as digital “smart boards” for the entire district. He held a similar post for the Lorain City Schools in Ohio, where Atkinson was most recently the district superintendent.
It is not unusual for new CEOs in the private sector to assemble their own “cabinets” and pluck people from their pasts to serve in those cabinets. I don’t think we can fault Atkinson for creating her own team and reaching back in her career to find the best people.
But a retired school administrator sent me a note this morning about the part of the story talking about March:
Here is the section of the story that worried the reader:
Atkinson’s other top educator is March, deputy superintendent for school leadership and operational support. March has been a school principal at all levels to high school, and in affluent as well as economically struggling neighborhoods.
“I was able to improve student achievement in all of those schools,” March said. “That’s what our mission is here in DeKalb.”
Her first priority is to make sure that each of the schools in the district has an effective principal, and in turn, that person sets the tone for the classroom. March helped school districts boost their student achievement goals by assisting in creating student assessment tools, or ways to closely track student progress. She also helped improve curriculum of science and math instruction.
Here is what the reader said after reading it:
Should we worry about a Kendra March because of her statement “I was able to improve student achievement in all of those schools …”? Or should we simply conclude that it was taken out of context and not indicative of her proven practice? For in addition to it being politically incorrect to use the “I” word for what was so obviously a team effort, it is foolish when beginning a position which will take the cooperation and support of a large number of her new colleagues.
In my reporting over the decades, I have seen the power of one leader to transform a school, but a critical piece of that transformation has been the assembling of the right team.
But I have also seen the deflation that can occur in a school when a charismatic leader walks out the door. So, even though the team was still in place, the leader was the catalyst who provided the energy that electrified the school.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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67 comments Add your comment
concerned parent
November 26th, 2011
3:21 pm
As for Ralph Simpson, from what I have heard from various sources, he comes and goes when he wants at the school where he is assigned and does little while he is there. He is a waste of DCSS resources.
Barbara Garnes
November 26th, 2011
3:25 pm
Enter your comments here
Dekalbite@concerned
November 26th, 2011
3:50 pm
$147,000+ for Mr. Simpson in salary and benefits (20%).
Dekalbite@concerned
November 26th, 2011
4:27 pm
So you see Ms. Tyson did nothing to really discipline him. The AJC article garnered a lot of attention, but in the end he was quietly moved to a position of much less responsibility with no pay decrease.
According to the AJC, Annette Roberts was fired for the book purchase scandal, but according to DeKalb’s directory, she is still in DCSS as of today. Did they quietly hire her back this year?
http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/dekalb-fires-2-demotes-592425.html
http://www.crossroadsnews.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Book+buys+lead+to+firings-+demotions%20&id=9218753&instance=lead_story
These people just get moved somewhere until the heat is off and then they quietly surface again.
Red Herring
November 26th, 2011
4:59 pm
the salaries of these education administrators (k1-12 and college as well) are ridiculous—we should model our public schools after our successful private schools —then proceed from there. let’s look statewide at the number of administrators per student load and then go from there—- if you have a private school superintendent supervising 15,000 students with 3 principals and are successful then set the same staffing and pay levels for the public schools. to hire an out of state superintendant and then allow her to hand pick her friends to come and work at the outrageous salaries of her assistants then we we need to find better solutions to our education funding vs. results crisis….we need to be looking at reducing administration by 1/2 and increasing teacher pay by 75% of the amount saved—the other 25% should return to the taxpayer…
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Georgians for Educational Excellence
November 26th, 2011
5:24 pm
Externally conducted personnel audit, anyone?
Old Physics Teacher
November 26th, 2011
5:24 pm
This is similar to football coaches bringing in their staff from a previous school. There is no overall change in the school’s win-loss record because the coaches don’t play the game (hint, hint about the relationship between “new” administrators and “old” students).
The same thing is done in the business sector. I remember back when I was in the private sector when the earth was still cooling. The brand new president and CEO brought in his old management team from his previous company. They successfully did to the new company what they did to the old company – they bankrupted it. Luckily I got out and cashed out my pension before the “new and improved” CEO bankrupted the largest building supplier in the nation.
New CEOs bring in their old staffs because the old staff is loyal to the CEO, not to the new organization. As a previous commenter said shorter and sweeter: same old; same old.
@concerned
November 26th, 2011
6:27 pm
Below is a link to Maureen’s blog article where she quotes Dr. Alice Thompson, one of 4 direct reports to Dr. Lewis and Ms. Tyson and as far as I can tell to Dr. Atkinson:
“The district cut Simpson’s salary from $115,405 to $89,599, and Thedford’s from $105,615 to $93,168, district Chief of Staff Alice Thompson said.”
http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2010/08/15/dekalb-throws-the-book-at-authoreducators-selling-their-stuff-to-the-school-system/
Open.Georgia.gov will have the salary information for 2010-2011 out by January, 2012. I guess we’ll see then if Mr. Simpson’s salary was cut.
Why Ms. Tyson did not cut Mr. Simpson’s salary at the time she disciplined him is a mystery. The contract he signed specifically says the salary printed on the contract is not guaranteed, nor is the position or location you are currently assigned to. This cost the taxpayers dearly in terms of Title 1 funds being used to buy these books instead of instruction for struggling students. Meanwhile, the smallest percentage of Title 1 schools (just 20%) made adequate yearly progress in DeKalb last May.
This is the culture that must change.
ADD
November 26th, 2011
9:55 pm
Sorry…The situation is starting to smell…This already sounds like a repeat of so many of the episodes that have become typical in Dekalb.
Still there in DCSS
November 26th, 2011
10:33 pm
You can go to the DeKalb Schools Directory and enter her name in the Search field to see that Dr. Roberts is still an employee at DCSS even though Ms. Tyson told the AJC she was fired as part of a disciplinary measure for the book scandal:
http://cnet.dekalb.k12.ga.us/
This is what the AJC published:
http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2010/08/15/dekalb-throws-the-book-at-authoreducators-selling-their-stuff-to-the-school-system/
RAMZAD
November 26th, 2011
11:02 pm
Those in the academic professions, particularly teachers and administrators, should keep it real. Like law enforcement and jurists who, for over a hundred years, have not provided anything new and meaningful about criminal behavior and how to stop it, academicians have not helped us any better about how people learn, how to turn on a love for learning, and how to deliver for transformational learning.
Like chiefs of police, chiefs of education are cycled from one jurisdiction to the next with the same procedures, the same mentalities, the same SOP, the same training, bigger salaries, and, in some cases with the same retinue of underlings. It is not rocket science that we tend to get the same very marginal improvements when there is, in fact, improvement.
Never in the history of the world have so much been published for so little benefit as in the case of understanding how to educate people. So bickering about salaries, and personalities, and academic principalities is not meaningful. If there is one discipline that needs to start over it would be that of
what it means to educate someone. Our world of poverty, disease, crime, ignorance, and greed is
good proof that, primarily, educators have failed.
Cere
November 27th, 2011
8:17 am
FWIW, this was part of the interviewing process. Most members of the board really wanted to hire a leader who could bring along a highly regarded ‘team’. That was a concern with Atkinson, as due to her experience in smaller systems, she didn’t seem to have access to an “A” team like perhaps some others. Frankly, I wish she would have brought in more people – doesn’t she know a transportation executive? How about a television production executive? How about a highly qualified HR executive? Someone with success in Title 1 programs? And maybe even a construction executive with integrity?
Bring them on…. But in March, she’d better get rid of the old baggage – we can’t afford to keep them as well as new staff. I’m much more concerned with the overpaid, under-qualified staff we currently employ at really big bucks as they watch student success plummet. Do not demote them, dismiss them. They will sabotage from any new perch they are given. Atkinson will get kudos from the people who are really watching when she cuts the unnecessary baggage.
d
November 27th, 2011
3:33 pm
@dekalbed – Gwinnett is an IE2 district – it’s a whole different ball game there.
Home School Drop Out
November 27th, 2011
6:42 pm
This is why so many Parents are Home Schooling.
DeKalb County is One big Cancer; sucking the Tax Payers dry.
Student Advocate
November 28th, 2011
5:05 pm
Maureen, can you press to find out what the displaced executives are doing now? They could sure be used in schools instead of sitting around in the palace collecting their salaries until they are ( hopefully) let go ASAP. I still would like to see the salary ranges for these positions and all other positions for that matter. Regarding secretaries – has it been revealed there is one General Administrative Secretary earning $79,500 per year and there are only 2 in this position earning in the $20’s.
Check it out – MOODY,COINTA A GENERAL ADMIN SECRET $79,546.55 $0.00 DEKALB COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATI 2010
makes no sense
November 28th, 2011
8:36 pm
Just heard that Audria Berry was fired this morning along with her assistant….wow can any one elaborate or verify this is factual?
Dunwoody Mom
November 28th, 2011
9:16 pm
Cointa Moody was Pat Reid’s admin. She was indicted along with Lewis, Reid and Pope. She is no longer employed by DCSS.