Clearing the smoke in the Smoke Rise Elementary dispute over parent-raised funds for new playground
A parent sent me this photo of a 2009 casino night and silent auction held by the Smoke Rise Elementary Foundation to raise money for new playground equipment. (Special)
On Tuesday, I received a note from Smoke Rise Charter Elementary School parents in DeKalb about what they deemed an unsavory and unfair effort to convert funds raised for a playground by a parent foundation to another use. I asked DeKalb spokesman Walter Woods about it that morning and just received his reply.
So, here are both the notes.
First, the note from members of the Smoke Rise Elementary Foundation:
Last night the Smoke Rise Charter Elementary School Principal and Governance Council called a special meeting and demanded that the Smoke Rise Elementary Foundation, a separate fundraising entity, provide them unlimited access to nearly $45,000 in funds previously raised by parents and the community over the last 3 years for the specific purpose of replacing the current dangerous playground equipment. The Principal and Governance Council want to cancel the previously approved playground upgrade project. The administrators are wanting carte blanc use of the money that had been designated for the playground; including to pay an additional salary to a current full-time DeKalb County School System employee whose children attend the school.
In addition, last spring, SREF volunteers applied for and received a renowned KaBOOM!® $15,000 grant to match funds already raised for the playground. After previously approving the playground purchase, the Principal and Council at SRE suggest to just “walk away” from this generous grant.
Nearly every fundraising event that has occurred over the last three years was advertised specifically as going to fund a new playground for the school children and local community. The $45,000 includes funds that were collected via a website established explicitly to collect funds for a new playground and to show issues with the current playground equipment built in 1969 and 1980s.
The mission of the SREF is to continually improve the educational experience at Smoke Rise Charter School by creating sustainable business and community partnerships that provide financial and other resources. SREF was established years before the existence of the SRE Governance Council and without regards to the Council. The Counsel believes SREF is forced to do as it says.
Parents who donated for the expressed cause of building a new playground for their children are outraged that their money appears to have been donated under false pretenses.
Upon reading that note, I asked Walter Woods about the allegations, prefacing my comment with the understanding that the school could not commandeer foundation funds.
Here is what Woods sent me today:
You are correct. Smoke Rise Charter Elementary School understands it has no authority over the Smoke Rise Elementary Foundation’s money. They are completely separate. The charter school’s leadership can only make requests to the foundation.
At a meeting on Monday, the school’s Governing Council presented a system for deciding priorities for requests to the foundation. Some of the requests include new technology for computer labs and professional training and materials to help teachers meet new state curriculum standards coming later this year. The school leadership believed on Monday that everyone was in agreement about the recommendation system.
Other priorities have also been discussed, including a playground and funding a school parent liaison. In terms of the playground, Smoke Rise Elementary’s building is scheduled to replaced in the next few years under SPLOST IV, and that would include $150,000 in new playgrounds, fields and equipment. A new playground was not agreed on by everyone to be the priority nor has the playground been the focus of all of the school’s fund raising in recent years.
The parent liaison position is described in the school’s charter, and has been funded over the past two years by a grant that has now expired. An employee at the school has been performing this role and committing the hours in addition to their position at the school. The school leadership asked the foundation to fund $15,000 for the extra-curricular position.
The foundation has paid $5,000 towards this position. Funding such a position is allowed under the school charter. But the school leadership can only make recommendations to the foundation, and we hope that everyone can work together to decide on priorities that are in the best interest of the students at Smoke Rise and the community.
Thanks,
Walter Woods,
Executive Director of Communications, DeKalb County School System
–from Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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198 comments Add your comment
WHAT A CROCK!
January 26th, 2012
7:14 am
For those of you who say that we’re just a bunch of crazy mothers, I have a question for you. HOW MUCH MONEY HAVE YOU RAISE FOR THE SCHOOL THIS SCHOOL YEAR NOW THAT ALL OF YOUR FUNDRAISERS HAVE LEFT YOU BEHIND? You’ll see pretty quickly (if you ever show up to a meeting or event) that the people who did 99% of the work have left. Good luck to you! The children belonging to us “mom’s gone amuck” will thrive despite this insanity because we have taken them away from this school and administration and put them in a new community learning center that we created as an affordable and wholesome learning option. We will save our community and our kids despite DCSS! We tried to bring our school back but finally gave up. Our CHILDREN are the ones who really suffer here. You should remember that.
Also, it needs to be said that one reason that we never took all of these problems to the media before now was because when things went south last year and we tried to resolve issues on our own, the administration hated us all so badly that they made it IMPOSSIBLE to even walk into the school without teachers in clusters whispering about us or being just plain RUDE to our faces. It was an “us against them” thing. We went to the County. No luck. OUR KIDS sat in that building all day every day while the teachers and administration hated their parents. As a parent, it’s an AWFUL feeling to drop your child off in the mornings knowing that he/she could be treated poorly by these people just because they have a personal gripe with you. We were all still working so hard to try to SAVE the place so starting up a storm like this would have been counterproductive to all of our efforts. A LOT of us have left the school behind YET STILL CONTINUE TO WORK ON THE FOUNDATION BOARD because it’s the job that we started – and we all wanted to finish it. We raised all of that money over years of very hard work and we wanted to get the playground project completed. So, we simply tried to keep PEACE in our community by dealing with these issues ourselves rather than bring negative publicity to Smoke Rise. When these people said that they wanted our bank account and NOT the playground nor US – that was the final straw. I will stand up for the work that I did for all of these years and I won’t sit on the sidelines and listen to this insane banter about how we’re just a bunch of crazy mothers who tried to run the school. WHAT. A. CROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
G. Watts
January 26th, 2012
8:10 am
I am appalled, embarrassed and disgusted by the ignorance surrounding the Smoke Rise Elementary school controversy. Looks like kindergarten has moved to a higher level. O.K. folks, guess what, this is about a children’s school, which “children” attend, who may or may not be listening to there “ignorant parents” discussing the principal and other individuals in a negative manner.
The Deal
January 26th, 2012
8:27 am
Smoke Rise parents, I am sorry this has happened to you. I have no connection to your school, but I believe your story entirely, as I know at least two other elementary schools that have horrible principals that act in the same way as yours and are destroying the community around them. I don’t know what it will take to teach a principal like that that he needs to work with parents and support his teachers instead of trying to intimidate everyone, but this makes three schools I know of that have its most involved parents running away from the school and putting their kids in private schools. I would like to see numbers on how many of DeKalb’s “neighborhood” schools are not really neighborhood schools. The ones I know of used to be good schools that were crowded with neighborhood kids. All it takes is one bad principal to ruin a school alienating the parents, intimidating the teachers, and living in a bubble.
Another Ex-Smoke Rise Parent
January 26th, 2012
8:33 am
I can only second ‘Get Your Facts Straights’ latest comments of last night. I was there and wintnessed so much of this first hand and have the same opinion that ‘Not as innocent as they appear’ is one of the teachers.
For now, Smoke Rise is a Conversion Charter. Unfortunately, it was only at the *end* of the second year the the principal was brought to task (by the county) for not taking action and not living up to the terms of the charter. It looks like now that the school will not live up to the terms of the charter and a full charter will likely not be granted once the probationary period expires. The whole experience was unbelievable and, as said by ‘Get Your Facts Straight’, “mind blowing”.
Maureen, please do a few open records requests and confirm this for yourself and your readers. Please don’t listen to just us. There was a very organized and well documented complaint carried to the county on *all* of this that included personal letters written by parents involved. The letters and personal testaments were compiled and presented as a group and I bet that with a little asking around, you can get your hands on these documents too. Unfortunately, the complaint to the county didn’t seem to go anywhere (which is why so many of those same parents left last year). Perhaps you can give it some traction?
Dekalb taxpayer
January 26th, 2012
9:10 am
This is so disheartening but not at all hard to believe. Unfortunately, Dekalb has some (many?) principals who are not qualified to be in that position (put there when an incompetent board hired an incompetent superintendent—Lewis). A principal who is in over his or her head will feel threatened by a group of educated, motivated parents while a good principal would thank his or her lucky stars for such a group and what they can mean to a school. My kids have all graduated but just being a property owner has me disgusted with the state of DCSS.
Dunwoody Mom
January 26th, 2012
9:16 am
I truly believe one of Dr. Atkinson’s most daunting tasks is going to be making sure there are qualified principals in every school house.
Dekalb taxpayer
January 26th, 2012
9:29 am
Dunwoody Mom, it’s only a daunting task politically. In this economy, finding qualified people shouldn’t be hard. You just need to hire them regardless of their gender, race or relationship with a board member or other DCSS employee.
big picture
January 26th, 2012
9:32 am
I completely believe that there are issues with the principal and DCSS’s handling of the situation. I believe that the money was raised for a playground and that because the money is there, administrators and the county would like to appropriate it for their own desired use (I am curious about using a secretary as a parent liason, though, what again does this position do?)
I also recall, however, that school was one of 4 in central dekalb that was on the potential closure list and that several parents posted on the save smokerise page comments that encouraged throwing another school under the bus, so to speak, because the housing values weren’t as high in that area (which proved to be inaccurate).
From my experiences all of it at the local school is political….not just the movements of the system, but also of PTAs and the parents. As a parent once very involved, I’ve learned to sit back and provide support for my kids and their activities to the best of my ability. Working for the good of the local school, whether from the parent side (PTA) or the school side unfortunately too often is a political game that only a few have time to commit (some of us work) or the energy to sustain. Believe me, this is NOT how I felt when my kids (now in middle school) started; but rather is the impact of personal experiences. I wonder how many other parents have thrown up the towel as well (sounds like quite a few from Smokerise).
Smoke Rise Dad
January 26th, 2012
9:33 am
G. Watts is obviously an administrative “plant!” We are good parents who obviously can differentiate between talking with our children and talking, or blogging, with other adults.Being involved with and compassionate about our children’s education, and thus their future, is not ignorant.You obviously know nothing of the past here or are simply a “plant!”
Two sides to a story
January 26th, 2012
9:47 am
@ Big Picture I agree. PTAs, school Foundations, and the like have become ways for parents to try and control what happens in the school. This doesn’t work.
As I read the comments from the parents, they are also upset that the school isn’t going to be a stand alone Charter school. Yet, they probably want the new million dollar SPLOST built school as well. The stand alone charter, is probably because they don’t want their children in a DeKalb School District School. They are thinking that if they worked hard to make it a stand alone charter, that they can have say into who comes into the school, and has more say over what goes on then they currently do in the school.
It doesn’t make sense to spend money on a new playground if the school is going to be rebuilt or if a new one is going to be provided by SPLOST. Just because parents raise money for the playground, doesn’t mean that they can dictate what playground is purchased, where it is placed, etc. The parents aren’t responsible for the grounds and if someone gets hurt the school district or the county, as it’s also a county park, are, and should also have say in what is purchased, where it is placed, etc.
If parents what ultimate control over their children’s education, than one must homeschool. Public schools cannot have groups of parents pushing administrators around and telling them what they want and how they want it done. If this is going to happen, then the county doesn’t need to pay principals their high salaries and parents can volunteer for that job. A group of parents can make a good principal look bad, and a bad principal look good, it depends if they are getting their way or not.
Kaitsmom
January 26th, 2012
9:49 am
I mentioned in an earlier post I would like to get my child in this school and someone suggested I get involved now. sounds like a good idea. i want to understand all the dynamics before placing my child here. I like the fact that there is a foundation and a group of vocal parents that are concerned about the school and community. sounds like my kind of folks. I also think that we need some kind of law statewide that requires a principal’s evaluation ,at least 20% of it, be determined by parent evaluation. (Mareen-this needs to be a topic, I really would like to know how many are interested in having some input into the evaluation of principals at schools). This is definitely fitting for charter and theme schools that require parental involvement. At least you know the parent’s are involved and know first hand how things are working in that school. I have a really good friend whose son was enrolled in the school several years, who did not see eye to eye with the principal. I thought she may have been exagerating and I was willing to give him and the school the benefit of the doubt… now I am starting to wonder. and yes i need to get involved early to see what i am working with.
Yet Another Ex-Smoke Rise Parent
January 26th, 2012
9:51 am
This is truly sad for our community. Question for the school…What makes the administration refuse the help of involved parents? From what I hear, most schools have 20-30 people doing 80% of the work. I would think schools would reward the efforts of these workers.
Dunwoody Mom
January 26th, 2012
9:56 am
@DeKalb Taxpayer – I agree – that is why it is such a daunting task. From what I have heard, there is an excessive (and embarassing) number of unqualified individuals in the Principal positions within DCSS. Will Dr. Atkinson make the bold moves to make sure each school has a qualified Principal? I hope so.
Name One
January 26th, 2012
9:59 am
The Smoke Rise Principal has incredible gall to ask for money raised for a playground to be spent on his own wants.
WHO’s IN CHARGE OF THIS CRAZY MESS OF A SCHOOL SYSTEM?
“I invite you to read issues of my
newsletter “The Principal’s Page.”
Well, he hasn’t posted a Principal Page update since Sept. 2011)
http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/smokerise/principal/index.html
678-874-3602
aaron_w_moore@fc.dekalb.k12.ga.us
Name One
January 26th, 2012
10:04 am
Kaboom, http://kaboom.org, does an incredible job with granting funds for playgrounds across the country. It is affilaited with the Home Depot, headquarted not too far from DeKalb.
If the Kaboom grant isn’t used for the playground as intended, DCSS, Dr. Atkinson, and the Gene Walker Board of Ed. will be giving the proverbial middle finger to Kaboom, and good luck getting any more grants from this impeccable foundation.
Get Your Facts Straight
January 26th, 2012
10:05 am
@G. Watts,
My children will not be reading this, because they are under 10 and don’t watch or read local news because I’m a conscious parent. However, if they DID, they would not be surprised at all to hear what their moms are discussing. These children have lived it. THEY were called names by their teachers, THEY were sexually harrassed. THEY worked up the courage to tell the principal, and then watched as he did nothing to stop it. THEY were bullied on the playground, and THEY have to play on unsafe playground equipment. I think they’d be darned proud of their parents who are advocating on their behalf, and I hope they’d feel loved and feel inspired to speak up for other injustices in the world. THEY’VE thought these things were a “normal” part of school until we told them othwerwise. I think they’d feel proud that THEIR parents didn’t sell out or try to stick around and make them become the collateral damage of a grown up fight.
Also, Im so sorry, but I can’t help but laugh that when you called us “there ignorant parents”, you used the wrong version of the word there. it should have been their. That’s one grammar rule I’m not ignorant about. I know I’ve made plenty of similar mistakes in typing too fast, but that was just too hypocritical and funny to pass up commenting on.
SM
January 26th, 2012
10:11 am
Maureen: Would be great for the AJC to send a photographer out to take some photo’s of the current Smoke Rise playground.
Another Ex-Smoke Rise Parent
January 26th, 2012
10:12 am
@Two Sides to a story: Smoke Rise could never be a stand alone charter school outside of DCSS. It was a DCSS school to begin with and it could only ever be a ‘Conversion Charter School’ still under the control of DCSS. The parents involved in all this knew and understood that. They never wanted to ‘control’ the school… They just wanted to be active/involved parents that were doing what they could for their child’s school. The problem was that the administration took this negatively and resisted their efforts and turned it into an ‘us vs. them’ kind of thing which quickly deteriorated into a nightmare. One example of the administration’s response to the parents contributions is the very incident that precipitated this article. Instead of accepting the gift graciously, or even offering to ‘discuss’ other options given the possible SPLOST implications, they instead attempt to commandeer the funds through intimidation and in an illegal manner.
As for the ‘playground’ and the funds… Why can’t the new playground be built as intended and then the new equipment be moved to the ‘new’ site when (and if) the proposed SPLOST thing happens? and that is *if* it happens before the new equipment get too old and worn out again…. ahem….
Two Sides from Good Mom
January 26th, 2012
10:16 am
two of your comments make my skin crawl:
“PTAs, school Foundations, and the like have become ways for parents to try and control what happens in the school. This doesn’t work.”
It does work and it should work and parents should control a lot of what happens in schools as they are the biggest stakeholders. They have the most to lose.
You also wrote: “Just because parents raise money for the playground, doesn’t mean that they can dictate what playground is purchased, where it is placed, etc.”
Of course it does. It also means that when parents purchase a playground, the principal doesn’t have a right to rob the playground money for his administrative staff.
Where do your kids go to school, two sides? Are you a bureaucrat or teacher or what?
Magnolia
January 26th, 2012
10:19 am
I am a parent who lives in Smoke Rise who chose NOT to put my children in the school after touring the school and meeting with administrators. I just couldn’t do it- something was wrong with that school and you could tell by how the administrators presented themselves. So, I tried to help in any way I could in hopes that adminstrative changes would eventually be made, etc. And I was there when parents got together to start the foundation and I can tell you, these parents were ready to support and work with this principal. I personally thought he was a lost cause but I admired that they were willing to go to any lengths to support him and put EVERYTHING into making Smoke Rise the school that it once was. It is so sad what he has done to them, many things that aren’t even posted here yet. Dekalb Taxpayer got it right.In my opinion, this principal is threatened and is willing to character assassinate and retaliate in other unethical behaviors that are unbecoming of a what a TRUE leader of an elementary school should be. The children… that is what we should all be focused on!! What is best for them? Instead, cronyism and protectionism have been the winners of the day. When a principal can cover up a sexual harrassment case- children on children- for as long as he was able to, it has to be because he was helped…. that other’s turned their cheek. And it is true, Smoke Rise school parents did not come forth because NO-ONE wanted to further harm these girls and their families. Maureen should go to the principal’s boss and ask HIM what he did to take corrective action. Ask HIM why he left one of the victim’s parents sitting in his office waiting room for an hour before they finally gave up and went home and acted like they NEVER received the certified letter.
Finally, I was a witness to many of the estimated 40 parents who left this school at the end of last year in defeat. It is a tragedy. They worked so hard, were SO eager to be a part of the solution for this school. Sooner or later, I believe, that you can’t keep corruption under a rock. Sooner or later, the lies, the secrets, the cover-ups.. it’s part of the universal law of “What comes around, goes around”.
Maureen, please pick up this rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@Sm from Good Mom
January 26th, 2012
10:19 am
Sm said “Maureen: Would be great for the AJC to send a photographer out to take some photo’s of the current Smoke Rise playground.”
Great idea, SM. Maureen, please keep us up to date and on top of this story.
Another Ex-Smoke Rise Parent
January 26th, 2012
10:20 am
@Kaitsmom, most of those vocal and active parents have thrown in the towel and left Smoke Rise….. as stated in another post they are now thriving elsewhere… I would check that option out too… It’s a pretty good concept and turning out to be very successful and effective.
To Dekalb Taxpayer from Good Mom
January 26th, 2012
10:23 am
Ver well said…
“A principal who is in over his or her head will feel threatened by a group of educated, motivated parents while a good principal would thank his or her lucky stars for such a group and what they can mean to a school.”
Exactly. Very well said.
GM
Get Your Facts Straight
January 26th, 2012
10:27 am
@Two sides…I can’t find any reference to the fact that the parents are upset about not being a stand alone charter school. That was never an option on the table. We never even considered asking to be a stand-alone charter. I can’t even fathom how that got into your head. Get Your Facts Straight.
About SPLOST… Notice how little attention has been given to that option. That’s because informed parents know how unpredictable SPLOST funding is. I could spend all day giving you examples of how SPLOST money has been promised in the past, and then never delivered. But let’s assume that it does go through. The rebuild of Smoke Rise Charter (which the community does NOT NOT NOT WANT TO HAPPEN) is scheduled to begin during the 2013-2017 SPLOST building phase. Let’s say we get placed in the middle of that phase, and Smoke Rise breaks ground in Fall of 2015. My first grader will have to play on unsafe playground equipment for THREE YEARS. They will be in fourth grade before they have any potential to play on new equipment. Now three years might not seem long to you, but to a first grader, it is half of their elementary school years. It is a LOOOONG time. How do I say to them that we were HANDED 15K by an outside agency trying to do some good for the community, provide them state of the art play equipment, but turned it away because during their final year at Smoke Rise we are planning to give them something equivalent?
To What a Crock from Good Mom
January 26th, 2012
10:31 am
My heart goes out to you, What a Crock. I am still in disbelief that the principal tried to bully you out of the money you worked to raise for a beautiful purpose.
I prayed for you last night. I hope you can find some peace and sometime soon I hope you find justice. It is heartbreaking.
Good Mom
Get Your Facts Straight
January 26th, 2012
10:37 am
@Kaitsmom: I’m so sorry if we gave you the impression that all these involved parents are still there. We are not. There is very little involvement now, and more are leaving at the end of this year. I sincerely wish you and Kait the best of luck in your quest for a good environment.
Maureen Downey
January 26th, 2012
10:38 am
@To all, The AJC photographed the playground this week.
Maureen
Dekalb taxpayer
January 26th, 2012
10:45 am
Thank you, Maureen. I would also be interested in the principal’s background—his degree or degrees and years and type of experience prior to being given this position.
SM
January 26th, 2012
10:45 am
Yeah Maureen!!!
Smoke Rise parents: Regarding the harassment of female students, it’s not too late to contact Maureen about this story.
If DCSS covered up a harassment issue, all of us DCSS parents need to know!!!
@Name One
January 26th, 2012
11:00 am
Maureen: You could have a 1000 comment blog post on how poorly DCSS maintains its school playgrounds, despite the massively bloated Sam Moss Maintenance Dept.
I have worked with Kaboom , and they are great. And they built the nice skate park at McKoy Park in Decatur.
But they don’t suffer fools gladly.
If DCSS and Principal Aaron Moore don’t use the $15,000 grant as intended, Kaboom will not want to award grants to any DCSS school, no matter how deserving. Aaron Moore, Walter Woods and DCSS will ruin it for the rest of us.
Walter Woods arrogant, unnecessary comments sure don’t help with Kaboom either.
Dr. Atkinson, show some leadership! Fix this mess. And then call Kaboom and personally plead with them to continue to award grants to deserving DCSS schools!!!!
Sam Moss staff: You do a HORRIBLE JOB with most DCSS playgrounds. Your performance is shameful to say the least. How bout actually maintaining playgrounds instead of virtually ignoring them.
Parents, ask Sam Moss staff and your principal for the last playground inspection form by a certified playground inspector for your school’s playground. If you don’t, an insurance company will the next time a student is injured on one of DCSS’ many pathetic playgrounds. Playgrounds should be inspected at minimum once a month by a Certified Playground Safety Inspector. Ask your principal for a copy of your school playground’s latest inspection form.
Get Your Facts Straight
January 26th, 2012
11:01 am
Also @Kaitsmom: There will not likely be a foundation after this year given that they’ve just been told they are not allowed to have any input on how the money they have worked so hard to raise will be spent. Please also note that outside of the administration, no staff member was EVER encouraged to attend foundation events outside of an inherited 30-year tradition craft show that they’ve been assisting with for the PTA once a year since inception. They also were not encouraged to contribute (and didn’t contribute!) financially to the foundation, nor did they support fundraising efforts. The vice principal was very generous (and should never be lumped in with this principal, though she obviously has to support him), and the principal showed up to one event where he stayed for 20 minutes and then said he had to get home to cut his grass. He made a few small obligatory financial contributions, rarely attended meetings, and never requested that staff members attend meetings. He just wanted to know where to pick up his check. Actually, he didn’t even ask for money at all until the Charter Grant money was gone, and then he suddenly planted staff members to start asking accusatory questions about it. I honestly think he was shocked to find it was sitting in the bank, waiting for the KaBOOM grant to come through. He really had no idea what was going on with the foundation.
Another Ex-Smoke Rise Parent
January 26th, 2012
11:05 am
Way to go Maureen!!! I hope you can also take us up on the suggestion to corrorborate all the comments/allegations/rhetoric in this blog with some open records requests to DCSS and maybe a solicitation of the documentation of the more than 40 (?) parents complaints that was presented to DCSS regarding this specific school and it’s administration? There is definitely a story on the harassement cover up.
@Name One
January 26th, 2012
11:09 am
Maureen: If AJC posts photo’s of the Smoke Rise playground, please also post a copy of the last playground inspection report done by a Certified Playground Safety Inspector. Please!
Beverly Fraud
January 26th, 2012
11:09 am
“Walter Woods arrogant, unnecessary comments sure don’t help with Kaboom either.”
Looks like we have a volunteer willing to serve Walter Woods another fine cup of STFU coffee.
Smoke Rise Mom
January 26th, 2012
11:26 am
I’m heartbroken for our wonderful Smoke Rise teachers who have been putting our children first in spite of this storm that has been brewing over the past year in addition to furloughs and everything else they deal with. It may sound like sour grapes, but I can tell you there are some newsworthy stories here and maybe they do finally need to come out so things can get better.
I still have children at Smoke Rise, but hopefully I can find an alternative for next year. I just can’t keep them in this environment and I’ve already pulled way back on my involvement. I refuse to work my tail off to raise money for this school and then be talked to by a couple of the teachers and the principal and asst principal they way they do.
Smoke Rise Elementary does not serve the children of our community. Many have pulled out and many more will before next school year. These are the high achievers that are going elsewhere and we will soon move down to the needs improvement category. This school has become a blight on our community and I am in favor of bulldozing it and not wasting SPLOST dollars to build a shiny new building for kids who don’t live here.
SM
January 26th, 2012
11:44 am
The playground issue is important, but secondary to the cover-up of the 4th grade girls being harassed. This needs “sunlight”, and cannot be tolerated. The administrators at Smoke Rise who hid this scandal need to be fired, not re-assigned.
Yet Another Ex-Smoke Rise Parent
January 26th, 2012
12:02 pm
At this point I would rather see a pretty park in place of this school. I think a park would add to my property value more than a poorly run school with an unsafe playground and sexual harassment issues.
The Deal
January 26th, 2012
12:33 pm
Before anyone starts accusing these moms of sounding crazy, you should know their emotions are amped up because this has been going on for years. They have tried to do things the right way for so long, and now, with the littlest bit of attention, they are being ridiculed for being so emotional about their problems finally seeing the light of day. It is embarrassing and very hurtful when you try to change something for the better and the response you receive is *nothing*. Even a fight would be better than nothing, but that is what these parents have put up with for years. Add to that the emotion of having this issue be all about your children and the neighborhood where you live. There aren’t many more things in life you’re going to be so defensive about. If a fraction of what they have said is true, there are enough problems to warrant considerable action.
Another Ex-Smoke Rise Parent
January 26th, 2012
12:42 pm
@The Deal…. You are exactly right…. and more than a fractiion of what has been said here is true… there are many things that have not yet *been* said here….. it is all too much to really bring out this way and there is too much emotion behind it all for exactly the reasons you pointed out…. Here’s to hoping that Maureen and the AJC can pull some of it out from under the rug (or rock) where everyone can see it, and where hopefully, DCSS will be forced to do something about it….
Vista Belle
January 26th, 2012
12:55 pm
Denying kids a playground? Nice job. Since when has Dekalb been accountable with its money? How many times has “in a few years” been in the same sentence with “SPLOST”? Yep, every time. SR parents do what they say they are going to do, which is why the Foundation makes so much sense: theoretically, the money is earmarked for a specific purpose —– until power-hungry higher-ups get too greedy and demanding.
And what about that email that said “bad things” about the teachers? That was originally a survey asking exiting families WHY they were leaving so the remaining families could use the exit interview information to IMPROVE the school. The email of one parent listed very specific instances of teachers treating students poorly; the parent named the offending teachers to sound definitive rather than arbitrary; the email was submitted and subsequently read aloud
by a teacher during a staff meeting, causing fury to ensue by the staff. The parent’s name was also released to the staff —— so instead of taking to heart the criticism from the concerned parent, the SRCS employees turned cold to that parent and every other parent who put endless hours into the school. At that point, the employees treated most parents as suspects in a plot to get rid of teachers and the principal! Huh??? As was stated in an earlier post, the principal did indeed use that single email as a force to divide parents and faculty.
Yes, many families have since found better options, and many of those families STILL have the best intentions to help the school and have done so by attending PTA-sponsored activities, signing their kids up after-school clubs, paying PTA dues, and donating to the playground fundraisers.
“Amok” is hardly the word anyone would use after the level of organization, leadership, and initiative that was carried out in that school by the volunteers.
Smoke Rise Charter
January 26th, 2012
12:56 pm
Here is the charter for Smoke Rise:
http://schools.dekalb.k12.ga.us/smokerise/files/0ABE4F1AD5FC4773B827956C83DAA973.pdf
Get Your Facts Straight
January 26th, 2012
1:34 pm
@Smoke Rise Mom
January 26th, 2012
11:26 am
………………………………
AMEN! The good, decent, hard-working teachers at that school have been the biggest victims of all in this. They were lied to by their principal, turned against by the few “bad apple” teachers… who made it clear that they would be ostracized if they wereseen talking to parents, they were left to deal with out of control discipline problems, lost a TON of gifted and high-performing students, and are not allowed to talk to parents anymore without scrutiny. They walk the hallways looking nervous and stressed… what a horrific working environment. My biggest regret is that the OUTSTANDING staff members at SRC have been so severely affected and divided by this. The mistreated families got to go to a better place. The “mob mentality” teachers got to feel like they won when the parents left. The rest of the staff is just stuck trying to pick up the pieces with a still-ineffective leader.
I really wish we had a few hours to start discussing what happened in the PTA… an equally scandalous debacle!
SM
January 26th, 2012
3:45 pm
Hate to take away principals in the highest performing schools like Oak Grove, but Supt. Atkinson needs to shake up the system and place the top principals in the lowest performing schools, many of which are in South DeKalb. There should be enough good AP’s in the system to keep the positive going in those top schools who would lose their principals.
It’s time for DCSS to stop doing what DCSS always does: Not firing poor principals but re-assigning them to made up paperwork jobs at the same salary. This time, fire the weak principals, or make them go back into the classroom!
Fed Up SRC Parent
January 26th, 2012
3:55 pm
I’m appalled that neither Principal Moore, nor any of the members of the Charter Council, are aware that they cannot legally use the money. Any and all donations given to a 501 c 3 (the Foundation) that are donated for a specific purpose cannot be reallocated without each donor giving written approval. So, even if the foundation wanted to grant the request from the charter council they would be unable to do so unless they got the waivers from each donor.
Another Ex-Smoke Rise Parent
January 26th, 2012
4:25 pm
@Fed Up SRC Parent: The entire administration and Charter Council board has been in meetings last year where this information was specifically stated. They knew. Perhaps they didn’t believe or were hoping to just get away with it… but… They have been told before…. Also, I am not sure how much of this was the school administration (Moore) and how much was the Charter Council Board. I suspect the administration (but I admittedly do not know that).
Name One
January 26th, 2012
4:43 pm
Bye Bye any future Kaboom grants for DCSS school playgrounds. Look at the ohoto in the article of the current, old, unsafe playground. Nice job Principal Aaron Moore, nice job Sam Moss Center staff.
http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/dekalb-school-fundraising-arm-1318784.html
@Name One
January 26th, 2012
4:44 pm
Walter Woods: Arrogant, overpaid, dismissive, condescending fool (he makes in the mid-six figures):
Foundation members said school officials demanded they turn over their funds for other uses. School officials deny that. “We have no authority over the funding that the foundation collects,” DeKalb spokesman Walter Woods said. “But the playground is not a priority.”
Magnolia
January 26th, 2012
5:07 pm
He actually said that the playground isn’t a priority?!?!? Nice.
Kriss Nash
January 26th, 2012
5:11 pm
Get Your Fact Straight and Another Ex- Smoke Rise Parent are speaking the truth. I am a current parent that has defended keeping my kids in our neighborhood school for 7 years in countless discussion with neighbors, friends and my wife. We have donated many hours and money to the school just hoping that things would get better and the adminstration would improve with time. Not!! this has been the last straw and we are moving our kids to another school that will appreciate involved and motivated parents.If the school adminstrators, teachers or Governance Council wants to spend some money, Please feel free to raise it for themselves.
fact checker
January 26th, 2012
5:12 pm
http://schools.dekalb.k12.ga.us/smokerise/chartercouncil.html
According to the Smoke Rise Elementary Website at THIS moment (link above), the organizational structure of the Charter Governance Council presently lists the Foundation (SREF) beneath the Principal and Governance Council. This is what was handed out Monday night and began the evening’s bullying of SREF members present. This is in direct contrast to what Dekalb County Spokesperson Walter Woods is saying in the beginning of this blog.